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Data Retention a.k.a. "hey, that book, 1984? Great idea!"![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Members of the European Parliament will vote on whether to mandate retention of ALL email and mobile and landline phone call records across europe for 12 months. To fight "The Terrorists", but of course... No, this is not a joke. Powerful forces in Ireland and Europe are working to establish a police state for the information age, and they are trying to push the legislation through right now - while no-one's watching, it being the holiday season and all: It's too late to write to your MEP about it: phone, fax or email. "Damn Euros" you're saying, right? Well, guess what, local boy McDowell thought it just wasn't fascist enough, and fought for Ireland's "right" to have its own 3 YEAR retention of all records! Quite apart from the sheer technical insanity of retaining that much data, this is also a good example of the practice "policy laundering" - such proposals were already (IMO quite rightly) squashed in some european states, but national governments want to be able to say "well, we know it's infringing civil liberty, but those gosh darn europeans made us do it". |
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Jump To Comment: 1This story bubbled under for a long period, Mc dowell was twice threatened with legal action by the data commissioner for the illegal (unlegislated for) retention of phone and email data. It was reported by Karen Ellington in the back pages of the Business section on the Times.
In terms of data retention, mc Dowell forwarded the most
punitive practice in the EU and a longer date retention period than the States. The original Bill was introducd by John O Donoghue and was retained by Mc Dowell without legislation. The data commissioner threated the miniser for Justice with legal action unless the issue was sorted out. To my knowledge it has been legislated for. mind the EU sounds like a holiday camp in comparison. ( thre years data retention on e-mail/ mobile phone) in Ireland.