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Court Overturns Dutch Data Retention Law, Privacy More Important
wabrandsma writes According to DutchNews.nl: "Internet providers no longer have to keep their clients phone, internet and email details because privacy is more important, a Dutch court ruled on Wednesday." Digital rights organization Bits of Freedom writes in a blog: "The law's underlying European directive was meant as a tool in the fight against serious crimes. The Dutch law, however, is much more expansive, including everything from terrorism to bike theft. During the hearing, the state's attorneys avowed that the Public Prosecution does not take the law lightly, and would not call on the law to request data in case of a bicycle theft. The judge's response: it doesn't matter if you exploit the possibility or not, the fact that the possibility exists is already reason enough to conclude that the current safeguards are unsatisfactory."
I don't know why this fact escapes some people; but that's (one of) the problems with the 'trust me' argument. Sure, maybe I do trust you with my very life as a sworn blood brother who saved my life a dozen times at great peril to his own and whatnot. That's heartwarming. Doesn't matter a bit when you retire and your successor takes over.
In practice, it's even worse, since there are usually organizational incentives to ratchet up the transgressions(pollsters say that the public is concerned about crime? Politicians respond by promising to Get Tough and pushing the use of previously underexplored capabilities, game over.) Any system that depends on 'trust' in a person or agency is, in fact, not really a rule of law; but a rule of the hopefully-continued discretion of that person or agency.