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EU Police to Spy on Personal Calls, Emails & Web Usage
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Complete internet and phone usage data might be retained for five years |
LONDON,
June 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The Europol, the police
and intelligence arm of the European Union, proposed that telephone
and internet firms retain millions of pieces of data, including
details of visits to internet chat rooms and of calls made on mobile
phones and text messages, a U.K. daily newspaper reported Sunday.
The
Guardian said that this has been denounced by critics as one of
the most wide-ranging extensions of state power over private
information.
The
newspaper said that a draft document entitled 'Expert Meeting on Cyber
Crime: Data Retention' that was passed on to it revealed that the EU
was drawing up a ‘common code’ on data retention which will be
applicable in all member states.
“It
is typical that such a significant change in the control over private
information is being worked out in secret,” said Dr. Ian Brown, a
leading expert on data privacy and director of the Foundation for
Information Policy Research, the Guardian reported.
“It
does seem to have been Britain that has put pressure on other member
states to put in place this type of legislation. In 99 per cent of
cases it will be used properly, but what about the other one per cent?
There is not enough scrutiny of what is going on,” he added.
The
Europol document, the paper said, was drawn up at
a private police, intelligence services and customs and excise
officials meeting that took place in the Hague in April. Ten areas
where companies will be required to keep information in the fight
against international terrorism, domestic crime and drug running were
listed in the document.
The
information retained will include passwords used by individuals,
records of which website addresses are visited as well as details of
web pages looked at and credit card and bank details used for
subscriptions online, the paper said. With regards to e-mail, complete
information will be retained including, sender, time, recipient,
content and date.
The
U.K. will push for the data to be kept for five years, instead of the
current one or two months which is kept for billing purposes by
Internet Service Providers, said the Guardian.
The
National High-tech Crime Unit in the U.K., who are overseeing the data
retention plans, say that because cyber crimes have increased, they
need “new powers to keep ahead of criminals.”
The
Guardian also quoted a U.K. official as saying that some
investigations into murders could also rely on old telephone records.
“We
need to codify how this happens, so all countries in Europe are
dealing with the same set of rules. The internet does not recognize
national boundaries and international companies don't need the
confusion of dealing with separate codes in different countries,”
the source said.
According
to the document, the use of telephones, both landlines and mobiles
will be monitored and numbers dialed, the time, personal details, date
of birth and subscriber details will also be retained.
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