Justice Minister reluctant to store data
Published: 04 Feb 2010 11:38 GMT+01:00
Updated: 04 Feb 2010 15:07 GMT+01:00
- Sweden has Europe's 2nd fastest broadband: report (15 Jan 10)
- EU closes in on banking oversight deal: Borg (02 Dec 09)
- Swedish intelligence agency hit by IT-attack (04 Nov 09)
The European Union directive, known as the Data Retention Directive, was approved by Brussels in March 2006, but Sweden has yet to implement the measure more than three years after its passage.
The Swedish government conceded to the court that it had not fulfilled its obligations and assured the court that the EU directive 2006/24 can be expected to pass into Swedish law on April 1st 2010.
But hours after the verdict was made public, Justice Minister Beatrice Ask told news agency TT that the government would not be preparing a legislative proposal on the issue prior to this autumn's general election.
"The extent to which private companies should be forced to store information about the activities of individuals is an important matter of principle. That's exactly what this is about," Ask told news agency TT.
The minister added that the government would at least wait until the completion of an inquiry into police methods, the findings of which are expected to come at the start of the summer.
The Commission decided in April 2009 to file a suit against Sweden in the European Court of Justice and the court published its decision against Sweden on Thursday.
The Data Retention Directive was championed by former Social Democratic justice minister Thomas Bodström, but the centre-right government has declined to present the legislation to parliament.
"It's no secret that I wasn't very fond of the proposal when it was initiated and I think there is good reason to exercise a certain amount of caution when it comes to gathering information," said Ask.
On two previous occasions, the Commission has questioned why Sweden delayed implementing the law, with the government claiming it was too busy working on the Treaty of Lisbon to turn its attention toward the directive.
Sweden has been told to pay court costs, in accordance with EU praxis.
The measure stipulates that telecom operators store data about customers’ telephone calls, as well as information about text messages and emails.
The directive was passed in the wake of the Madrid and London terrorist bombings. Seen as an important tool in combating terrorism, it raised concerns from privacy advocates.
Your comments about this article
For example, elements in Article 5 Section 2 contradicts Article 5 Section 1. To be even more specific once case that proves the contradiction is:
Article 5
Categories of data to be retained
1. Member States shall ensure that the following categories of data are retained under this Directive:
(1) concerning fixed network telephony and mobile telephony:
(i) the number(s) dialled (the telephone number(s) called), and, in cases involving supplementary services such as call forwarding or call transfer, the number or numbers to which the call is routed;
(ii) the name(s) and address(es) of the subscriber(s) or registered user(s);
(2) concerning Internet e-mail and Internet telephony:
(i) the user ID or telephone number of the intended recipient(s) of an Internet telephony call;
(ii) the name(s) and address(es) of the subscriber(s) or registered user(s) and user ID of the intended recipient of the communication;
2. No data revealing the content of the communication may be retained pursuant to this Directive.
FYI, the directive can be viewed at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32006L0024:EN:HTML
Here lies the contradiction:
1. A user has a mobile subscribtion service and decides to use Skype to make a call to somebody in Afghanistan.
2. The directive requires that the dongle's details, your user-id and surrounding info to be retained. Additionally, the recepient of the call in Afghanistan is also required to be logged. This can only be achieved by decrypting the SSL secured connection (using a brute-force or man-in-the-middle attack?) of the call and hence violating the second section of the directive because one would need to retain the whole data segment in order to determine the duration of the call.
And there we have it. In all it would be cheaper for Sweden to keep paying the EU fines (consider it Sweden's contribution to the EU budget) rather than face a lawsuite from its 9 million citizens for breaching the directive.
just a example of how much we don't know :
http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/38417/666_MARK_OF_THE_BEAST/
might sound a bit far fetched but that is the way it is heading people will no longer be free but will be controlled more than they are today... no right
Check out what homeland security is doing thanks to Bush
The playing of the drama "1984" had started plaing long time ago during the Cold War era. It is continuing under America's "War on terror."
This open ended war is a war against other people's liberty. The argument forwarded is the protection of homeland and the preservation of freedome elsewhere, but in reality it is after money (market) and domination.
I for one am totally against this and so should you be
Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks
By Ellen Nakashima
Thursday, February 4, 2010; A01
The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.
Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack.
Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.
Why dont' you enlighten us, and try not to use the Daily Kos as your source.
"During Bush's terms office, librares, for example, were required to report on those who read communist books to the homeland security."
Really? Can you prove that... you know, from a credible source, not the Huffington Post or the Daily Kos.
It's amazing what people will believe due to pure hearsay.
If you want to talk about liberties being taken away, lets discuss Obama's Card check program which takes away the right to an anonymous vote when a union is trying to force its way on workers. That is a real loss of liberty. Good thing Congress is too nervous to pass such foolishness.
Not to mention that I need to give away all my biometric information if I want to travel to USA. Privacy you say?
Unless you have a clean platter to show, do not dare to act all high and mighty.
right enough. we're in no position to do a superiority dance over here. Nevertheless it's a good idea to tell such bullies as the EU, the UN and the United States Government to go pound sand.
As to the logs the EU will capture, not sure, but looking at previous posts, well it looks like a copy of a phone bill. My bill shows every call in and out and what numbers and for how long. I can't get a transcript of text messages though. And keeping this info, that is data nightmare. Think about this, one mobile provider may process about 20,000 text messages a second in its network, so how much room will that take in a day, a week, a month? Here in the US, unless asked to, we don't store text messages because it is just too difficult space wise.
I too believe it to be an invasion of privacy. I am all for assisting in a criminal investigation, but monitoring some college student who likes to quote Marx is a waste of time and resources. But when the public screams protect us, the government will step in and monitor every aspect of your lives so you can't hurt yourself. You could just all get prepaid phones and bypass it all. A new phone every month.
Screw off EU nazis
Europeans don't even know about this measure. This is the first I've heard of it and I live in the UK so thank you Sweden for delaying on this. This is another of those EU deals that pass well under the democratic barrier. If Adolf could have thought of the EU he wouldn't have invaded Poland! It's a totalitarian daydream!
Still like all daydreams it will end in tears and the streets will flow with red stuff once again.
Do you really think some government drone is fishing through YOUR life right now.... just ask that of yourself and if they were what would the find??
I think some of us watch too much hollywood.
Data that the EU now has to pass to the US on every person flying to the US can and does get into the hands of non-government agencies. A lot of countries especially the USA contracts out the handling of data to private contractors who 'loose' or abuse the data. There are marketing companies and criminals out there who are prepared to pay millions for access to that data.
I am not against in principal my data being stored by official organisations, but I am really scared of the potential for the sale and fraudulent use of that data
The greatest sentence of stupidity I have ever heard. It might be true if we lived in Zimbabwe.
Followed by a close second.
"I have no illusion of the limit of my freedom, but I am sure that I am more free than most Westerners, whose lives are observed in their entirety and every minute."
I can't believe people are so paranoid
Why don't you just google it? It's been all over the mainstream media:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/19/bush/index.html
This is rich!
I feel safer already.