[privacy] Europe: Proposed Legislation Called a Threat to Internet Users Privacy

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Via The International Herald Tribune.

[snip]

European governments are preparing legislation to force companies to keep
detailed data about people's Internet and phone use that goes beyond what
the countries will be required to do under a European Union directive.

In Germany, a proposal from the Ministry of Justice would essentially
prohibit using fake information to create an e-mail account, making the
standard Internet practice of creating pseudonymous accounts illegal.

A draft law in the Netherlands would likewise go further than the EU
requires, in this case by mandating phone companies to save records of
exactly where someone is during an entire mobile phone conversation.

Even now, Internet service providers in Europe divulge customer information
— which they normally keep on hand for about three months, for billing
purposes — to police officials with legally valid orders on a "routine"
basis, a privacy expert said. The data concern how the communication was
sent and by whom but not its content.

[snip]

More:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/14/business/privacy.php

- - ferg

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP Desktop 9.5.3 (Build 5003)

wj8DBQFF04sCq1pz9mNUZTMRAoBWAKC/GTJ++nYhusUfzlZOvg6DmCHFAQCgpxho
gcX4/zhtI7BpAX2iiSao+fo=
=BDi8
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

_______________________________________________
privacy mailing list
privacy () whitestar linuxbox org
http://www.whitestar.linuxbox.org/mailman/listinfo/privacy