Battleangel

Data retention or anal retentive?

UK ministers push for data retention

The draft legislation in question was put forward by individual member states, rather than the commission, in the wake of the Madrid bombings. It would require communications service providers to keep rather loosely defined user and traffic data for a minimum of a year, and possibly indefinitely.

Regular readers might remember that the proposal is widely considered to be unworkable, expensive to implement, invasive, and unnecessary, as well as possibly being illegal. The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to back calls for the draft to be abandoned.

The perhaps single most embarrassing thing here is that it was not just British voices raised in favour of the draft legislation. In fact, the second most fervent supporter was our own Swedish Minister of Justice, Thomas Bodström. Way to go. And after supporting software patents and the EUCD, Bodström should be ashamed. But more just keeps on coming. Idiot.

Data retention is of course laced with so many problems that it may never happen, but the sheer thought of a totalitarian retention database should be enough to rattle all but the most extreme and opportunistic.