FC: ISPs must keep copies of email messages for 3 months, say G8 government officials at meeting in (how appropriate) Moscow

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

And more info on Echelon:
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/newsid_503000/503224.stm



http://www.gilc.org/

GILC Alert
Volume 3, Issue 7
November 3, 1999

Welcome to the Global Internet Liberty Campaign Newsletter.

Welcome to GILC Alert, the newsletter of the Global Internet Liberty
Campaign. We are an international organization of groups working for
cyber-liberties, who are determined to preserve civil liberties and human
rights on the Internet.

[...]

========================================================================
[12] Government officials meet in Moscow over Internet surveillance
=======================================================================
Prosecutors from around the world were to meet to hatch new plans for
tapping the Internet.

The meeting was scheduled to occur on October 19-20 in Moscow. Attending the
meeting were to be Ministers of Interior and Justice of the G-8 nations,
including the United States, Japan, and Canada. Among the proclaimed goals
of these leaders is an obligatory agreement with European Union member
states and
so-called observer countries. These member states want greater international
cooperation and greater powers to perform transnational computer searches
for major criminal offenses. These powers would be "subject to specific
hedge clauses for appropriate protection of the sovereignty of other
states".

Perhaps the most notable proposal was an attempt to standardize the length
of time for which Internet service providers would have to keep copies of
their subscribers' e-mail messages. In March, the G-8 Ministers had
suggested Internet service providers should freeze and store suspect
communication data immediately on request of investigators. Under this
procedure, known as "Freeze and Preserve", the police could seize and
evaluate the suspect data and evaluate, assuming they had a judicial order
or other suitable legal basis. The European Union data-security
commissioners recommended that telecommunications operators should be
allowed to keep data for up to three months.

Other proposals would force computer manufacturers to install a "Black Box"
to allow investigators easier access to privately held computers. It remains
to be seen what possible safeguards will be included to prevent unnecessary
government intrusion in cyberspace.

The event was shrouded in secrecy, and no details were released as to what
happened at the meeting.

For more information, in German, see Christiane Schulzki Haddouti, "Hunt for
the log files", Spiegel Online, October 8, 1999 at
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/politik/0,1518,45748,00.html

For an English translation, visit
http://cryptome.org/g8-hunt.htm



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