Tomorrow the European Court of Justice will hold a hearing concerning the validity and proportionality of the EU directive on mandatory blanket retention of all communications data.
The importance of the upcoming court decision can hardly be overestimated: The indiscriminate retention of information on every telephone call, text message, e-mail and Internet connection made by any citizen is „the most privacy invasive instrument ever adopted by the EU in terms of scale and the number of people it affects“ (Peter Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor). Blanket data retention registers permanently the everyday communications, movements and Internet usage of 500 mio. citizens in the EU. On average, every 4 minutes information concerning us is being recorded (http://akvorrat.de/s/Haeufigkeit). Apart from the intelligence programmes that have surfaced now, data retention creates the greatest databases of personal information in existence.
The decision to be taken by the European Court of Justice will determine whether or not the government can potentially have our entire lives and behaviour recorded „just in case“ or whether innocent citizens will have a right to untraceable communications and interaction in an information society. The ruling will also indirectly determine whether the intelligence interception programmes that have recently surfaced in the UK („Tempora“) and France will have to be ended for violation European human rights.
Important information concerning the hearing
Time and place of hearing:
http://akvorrat.de/s/hearing
These people and governments will speak to the Court:
15 Minutes:
– Digital Rights Ireland (plaintiff)
– Irish Human Rights Commission
– Federl govt. of Carinthia (Austria, plaintiff)
– Mr Seitlinger [individual lawsuit Austria]
– Mr Tschohl [representing 11.100 citizens of Austria]
– Government of Ireland
– Government of Austria
10 Minutes each:
– Government of Spain
– Government of France
– Government of Italy
– Government of Poland
– Government of Portugal
– Government of UK
15 Minutes each:
– EU Council
– EU Parliament
– EU Commission
– Mr Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor
The questions raised by the Irish High Court and its reasoning (excerpt: „Nonetheless it is clear that where surveillance is undertaken it must be justified and generally should be targeted.“)
http://akvorrat.de/s/HighCourt-questions
http://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2010/H221.html
The questions raised by the Austrian Constitutional Court and the Court’s reasoning (excerpt: „Considering the doubts regarding the effectiveness it [blanket data retention] appears to interfere disproportionately with human rights.“)
http://akvorrat.de/s/VerfGH-referral
http://akvorrat.de/s/VerfGH-Vorlage (reasoning in German only)
The questions asked to the parties by the European Court of Justice:
http://www.contentandcarrier.eu/?p=435
Working Group on Data Retention: Background information and facts concerning the Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC
http://akvorrat.de/s/backgrounder
Working Group on Data Retention: Arguments of Data Retention advocates critically discussed
http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/83/87/lang,en/
Resource and document trove:
http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Resources
Photos of protests in Germany against data retention (free use):
http://akvorrat.de/s/CC-Fotos
http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Aktuelle_Fotos
Call of more than 100 organisations from 23 European countries to abolish the EU data retention directive:
http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/363/158/lang,en/
The information and views set out in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Working Group on Data Retention (AK Vorrat).
