------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Sat, 08 Dec 2001 18:09:21 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Declan McCullagh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: FC: Update on E.U. plan to log Internet traffic for police use Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Below is a letter to Guy Verhostadt, president of the European Council, regarding a proposal before the European Council of Ministers that would expand surveillance of electronic communications. A few dozen nonprofit groups have written a similar letter to Verhostadt: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02779.html Some background: "Europe set to nix Bush request, not require ISP data retention" http://www.politechbot.com/p-02789.html "European Confrontation Over Privacy Rights on Internet" http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/30/technology/30DATA.html -Declan ********** UE/ PRIVACY: CAPPATO: " VERHOFSTADT AND DAEMS HAVE TO REJECT GENERALISED AND MASS SURVEILLANCE ON TELEPHONE COMMUNICATIONS AND INTERNET IN THE EUROPEAN UNION" Open letter of Marco Cappato, radical MEP and rapporteur of the European Parliament on the Directive on privacy in electronic communications, to Mr Guy VERHOFSTADT, President of the European Council and Prime Minister of Belgium, and to Mr DAEMS, President of the EU Telecom Council and Minister of Telecommunications of Belgium. Brussels, December the 5th, 2001 Honorable President of the European Council, Honorable President of the EU Telecoms Council, The EU Telecoms Council of Ministers will meet tomorrow in Brussels to decide on the directive on the protection of privacy in electronic communications. The CoRePer (Committee of Permanent Representatives of EU Member States) will propose to reject European Parliament amendments that aimed at regulating public authorities' access to personal datas. The CoRePer notably proposes to give Member States the freedom to impose the compulsory storage of all traffic (the content of the communication is excluded) and Internet surfing data on telephone and Internet service providers. The European Parliament had on the contrary approved on 13 November an amendment that referred to the European Convention of Human Rights and the related jurisprudence. This amendment prohibited any form of generalised and mass surveillance, and foresaw that any exception to the respect of the privacy principles have to be authorised by law and by a judge and on a case by case basis. These measures have furthermore to be necessary in a democratic society, proportionate, appropriate and limited in time. In my quality of rapporteur of the European Parliament on the Directive on privacy in electronic communications, I ask you to intervene in the Council so as to have the EP proposal approved. I am very conscious of the fact that the fight against terrorism has priorities that led the President of the United States George Bush to write to you to ask for a change of the Directive in the section that provides for the deletion of data at the end of the billing time. It is necessary to notice, on the one hand, that neither the federal legislation of the United States provides an obligation for generalised data retention and that, on the other hand, as the main experts of the sector say, the weakness of public authorities in the repression of terrorism does not consist so much in the lack of collected data, but in the difficulties to make use of it, because of the lack of "intelligence" on the ground. In conclusion, the proposal the Council is examining to give to public authorities the mandate to supervise potentially all citizens must be rejected as it puts at stake fundamental and constitutional liberties, granted by the European Convention on Human Rights, without contributing to a more aimed and effective fight against criminality. ------------------------------------- UE/ PRIVACY: CAPPATO: " VERHOFSTADT ET DAEMS DOIVENT REJETER LA SURVEILLANCE GENERALISEE ET DE MASSE SUR LES COMMUNICATIONS TELEPHONIQUES ET SUR L'INTERNET DANS L'UNION EUROPEENNE" Lettre ouverte de Marco Cappato, d�put� europ�en Radical et rapporteur du Parlement Europ�en sur la Directive sur la protection de la vie priv�e dans les communications �l�ctronicques, � M. Guy VERHOFSTADT, Pr�sident en exercice du Conseil Europ�en et Premier Ministre de la Belgique, et � M. DAEMS, Pr�sident du Conseil Telecom de l'UE et Ministre des T�l�communications de la Belgique. Bruxelles, le 5 d�cembre 2001 Monsieur le Pr�sident en exercice du Conseil, Monsieur le Ministre, Le Conseil des Ministres des t�l�communications de l'Union europ�enne se r�unira demain � Bruxelles pour examiner la Directive sur la protection des donn�es personnelles dans les communications �lectroniques. Comme vous le savez, la proposition du Comit� des Repr�sentants Permanents (CoRePer) de rejeter les amendements du Parlement europ�en destin�s � r�gulariser les possibilit�s d'acc�s des autorit�s publiques aux donn�es personnelles figurera �galement � l'ordre du jour. Le texte du CoRePer propose en particulier que carte blanche soit donn�e aux Etats nationaux pour la conservation obligatoire de la part des fournisseurs d'acc�s � Internet et des op�rateurs t�l�phoniques de toutes les donn�es personnelles relatives au trafic t�l�phonique (except� le contenu des conversations) et � la navigation en r�seau. Le Parlement europ�en avait, par contre, approuv� � l'unanimit�, le 13 novembre dernier, un amendement qui, se r�f�rant � la Convention europ�enne des droits de l'homme, interdisait toute forme de surveillance g�n�ralis�e et de masse, et pr�voyait que les exceptions au respect de la privacy soient autoris�es seulement au cas par cas, de mani�re appropri�e, proportionn�e et limit�e dans le temps. En ma qualit� de Rapporteur sur la Directive, je me permets de vous demander d'intervenir au sein du Conseil pour approuver la proposition du Parlement europ�en. J'ai bien conscience des priorit�s pour la lutte contre le terrorisme, qui ont �galement conduit le Pr�sident des Etats-Unis, George Bush, � vous �crire pour demander une modification de la Directive pr�cis�ment dans la partie qui pr�voit l'effacement des donn�es au terme de la p�riode de contestation des factures. Il faut cependant noter, d'une part que la l�gislation f�d�rale des Etats-Unis ne pr�voit pas non plus une obligation de conservation g�n�ralis�e des donn�es, et d'autre part que, au dire des plus grands experts du secteur, la faiblesse des autorit�s publiques dans la r�pression du terrorisme ne consiste pas tant dans l'insuffisance des donn�es recueillies que dans la difficult� de les utiliser, en raison des ressources limit�es d' "intelligence "sur le terrain". En d�finitive, la proposition en examen au Conseil de fournir aux autorit�s nationales le mandat pour surveiller potentiellement tous les citoyens devrait, selon moi, �tre rejet�e car elle met en danger les libert�s fondamentales et constitutionnelles garanties �galement dans la Convention europ�enne des droits de l'homme et, en m�me temps, elle ne contribuerait pas � une lutte plus cibl�e et efficace contre la criminalit�. En vous remerciant de l'attention que vous voudrez bien porter � ma lettre, je vous prie de croire, Monsieurs, � l'assurance de ma haute consid�ration. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- --- ------- End of forwarded message -------
