New EU data retention proposal

From the latest GILC Alert: "Privacy experts have voiced concern over a proposal submitted to the European Union that would require the retention of customer communications data. The United Kingdom, France, Ireland and Sweden are urging the European Union (EU) to adopt a Draft Framework Decision on this issue. If implemented, telecommunications companies would have to keep customer traffic and location data for 1-3 years (or even longer depending 'upon national criteria') and allow law enforcement agents to access this data. The draft is written broadly to include data generated by a number of different systems, such as communications carried through 'Internet Protocols including Email, Voice over Internet Protocols, world wide web, file transfer protocols, network transfer protocols, hyper text transfer protocols, voice over broadband and subsets of Internet Protocols numbers - network address translation data'... Signatories would have to comply with the Framework Decision 'within two years following the date of adoption.' ...Ben Hayes from Statewatch (a GILC member) suggested that the proposal was deeply misguided: 'What is needed is good intelligence on specific threats, rather than mass surveillance of everyone, generating more data than can usefully be analyzed.... This proposal is disproportionate, unnecessary and has no place in a democracy.' ...A Statewatch analysis of the Draft Framework Decision is posted [here]."