September 26, 2005

EDPS stalls on on data retention directive

by brian_turner

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The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Peter Hustinx, published his comments on the proposed European directive on data retention today. He is not fully convinced by the arguments for the directive, and sets out strict conditions any such law would have to meet for his office to find it acceptable.

If ratified the directive would require all Internet data to be held for six months and telephone call data for one year. It also demands that ISPs and telcos are compensated for their compliance costs. The legislation was proposed in the hope that the information could be used to prevent terrorism or to prosecute those accused of terrorist acts.

Mr Hustinx said that the Directive has a direct impact on the protection of privacy of EU citizens. He said it was vital that it should respect citizensâ€™ fundamental rights, as settled by the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, and stressed that a legislative measure that would weaken the protection would be illegal.

He said from a data protection perspective, traffic and location date should not be retained at all for the purpose of law enforcement and stressed that retaining data for longer than the six or 12 months proposed in the Commission’s draft version of the directive would not be acceptable. He highlighted the need for adequate safeguards to be established to protect personal data.

Mr Hustinx also said that the proposal would need the support of the European Council and the Parliament.

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Story link: EDPS stalls on on data retention directive

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