Spy Blog - SpyBlog.org.uk

The EU politicians should consult with the public, not just with representatives of vested interests like the telecomms industry, to see if such an infringement of current rights and freedoms and the increase in bureacratic red tape is at all acceptable.. We believe that the electorate will reject politicians who advocate such snooping on innocent people, which would have so little effect on criminals.

Hopefully the new Open Rights Group will continue to liase with other European groups like those who supported the Data Retention Is No Solution petition to defend our freedoms against this disproportionate, bureaucratic and expensive policy..

Article 4

Categories of data to be retained

1. Member States shall ensure that the following categories of data are retained under this Directive:

a) Data necessary to trace and identify the source of a communication:

(1) Concerning Fixed Network Telephony and Mobile Telephony
(a) The calling telephone number;
(b) Name and address of the subscriber or registered user;

(2) […]

(3) Concerning Internet Access, Internet e-mail and Internet telephony:
(a) The User ID(s) allocated.
(b) The User ID and telephone number allocated to any communication entering
the public telephone network.
(c) Name and address of the subscriber or registered user to whom an Internet
Protocol (IP) address, […] User ID or telephone number was allocated at the
time of the communication.

b) Data necessary to identify the destination of a communication:.

(1) Concerning Fixed Network Telephony and Mobile Telephony
(a) The number(s) dialled (the called telephone number or numbers), and in cases
involving supplementary services such as call forwarding or call transfer, the
number or numbers to which the call is routed.
(b) Name(s) and address(es) of the subscriber(s) or registered user(s).

The name and address of a subscriber is very often not that of the person actually using the telephone.

In Europe there are hundreds of millions of pre-paid mobile phones which are sold for the convenience of not having to register and be pestered by marketing spam and junk mail and to limit possible financial losses to the customer which a phone contact could easily expose them to through deliberate or accidental misuse.

What about non-EU mobile phones with International Roaming Agreements ?

Will terrorists or criminals simply evade all this expensive Data Retention by using North African , Middle Eastern or Asian or other non-EU mobile phones ?

If Charles Clarke and the other European Union politicians are trying to defy the market logic, then they need to explain the full implications to their own elctorates, instead of trying to sneak through such a fundamental change which will affect millions of consumers behind closed doors.

(2) […]

(3) Concerning […] Internet e-mail and Internet telephony:
(a) The […] User ID or telephone number of the intended recipient(s) of an Internet
telephony call.
(b) Name(s) and address(es) of the subscriber(s) or registered user(s) and User ID of the intended recipient of the communication.

Note that there is no plan to retain the source name and address of internet or mobile phone spammers and junk emailers

c) Data necessary to identify the date, time and duration of a communication.

(1) Concerning Fixed Network Telephony and Mobile Telephony:
(a) The date and time of the start and end of the communication.

(2) Concerning Internet Access, Internet e-mail and Internet telephony:
(a) The date and time of the log-in and log-off of the Internet Access service
based on a certain time zone, together with the IP address, whether dynamic
or static, allocated by the Internet Access Service provider to a
communication, and the User ID of the subscriber or registered user.
(b) The date and time of the log-in and log-off of the Internet e-mail service or
Internet telephony service based on a certain time zone.

An increasing proportion of Internet Access is of the "always on variety" - what is the point of retaining log on / log off IP address details which might only occur when there is a network problem, and which are likley to be automatically re-dialed / re-authenticated by a piece of network router hardware, without the actual presence or knowledge of a human being ?

d) Data necessary to identify the type of communication:

(1) Concerning Fixed Network Telephony and Mobile Telephony
(a) The telephone service used [….]
(2) Concerning Internet e-mail and Internet telephony
(a) The Internet service used.

e) Data necessary to identify users’ communication equipment or what purports to be their equipment.

(1) Concerning Fixed Network Telephony
(a) The calling and called telephone numbers.
(2) Concerning Mobile Telephony
(a) The calling and called telephone numbers.
(b) The International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of the calling party.
(c) The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) of the calling party.
(d) The International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of the called party.
(e) The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) of the called party.
(f) In case of pre-paid anonymous services, the date and time of the initial
activation of the service and the location label (Cell ID) from which the
activation was made.

One wonders if any of the EU politicians or civil servants have actually ever bought a pre-paid mobile phone themselves.

All that the "the date and time of the initial activation of the service and the location label (Cell ID) from which the activation was made." is likely to reveal is the location of the mobile phone shop where the new phone was originally bought and tested.

(3) Concerning Internet Access, Internet e-mail and Internet telephony: (a) The calling telephone number for dial-up access; (b) The digital subscriber line (DSL) or other end point [...] of the originator of the communication. (c) […]

f). Data necessary to identify the location of mobile equipment.

(1) The location label (Cell ID) at the start […] of the communication.
(2) Data identifying the geographic location of cells by reference to their location labels (Cell ID) during the period for which communications data is retained.
2. No data revealing the content of the communication can be retained pursuant to this Directive.

The EU Justice and Home Affairs ministers still seem to be pressing for the retention of uncompleted calls, despite not having presented any convincing case for doing so. Are they really attempting to legislate against subliminal or covert channels of communication ?

Where are the estimates of how much this EU wide Communications Data Retention and Access policy is likely to cost ? So what if the telecomms companies are subsidised with Government money to implement such Data Retention schemes ? The public will endsup paying another stealth tax for no obvious benefit.
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