EU Commission insists on enforcing data retention
The EU commission has officially put 19 member states on notice for failing to pass national laws implementing controversial EU regulations governing retention of telephone and Internet data. According to the dpa, the commission announced today that only eight of the 27 EU countries had passed such laws and reported back to Brussels. All of the countries who had neglected their obligation had already been served letters of notice by the end of November. Germany is one of eight countries setting the example by taking the lead. In that country, the hotly debated obligation to retain user data for six months within the framework of the new telecommunications monitoring law went into effect with the new year, despite strong protest on several fronts. Opponents, however, representing some 30,000 concerned citizens have filed a complaint, calling into question the constitutionality of the new legislation.
Trade organisations, privacy advocates, civil rights organisations, and left-leaning politicians are already issuing severe criticisms on the EU level, maintaining that the new data retention rules represent a dangerous paradigm shift. They believe that these measures amount to a general assumption of guilt of innocent citizens. According to the commission, the only countries that have enforced the regulations so far are France, Great Britain, Spain, Belgium, Latvia, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Estonia. By the end of last year, Berlin had not yet issued notice of compliance; it also received a letter of notice. But the correspondence was quickly taken care of. Note EU-Digest: This requirement is a violation of prevailing privacy laws and should not be allowed to be enforced by the EU commission.
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