Battleangel

The directive even got the ISPA’s villain award, before it was even confirmed:

Silicon - The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has named and shamed the candidates for its internet hero and villain awards.

In the firing line for the villain’s gong are Russia, for failing to crack down on cyber crime, the UK presidency of the EU for attempting to push through data retention laws and the EC for meddling in intellectual property law.

Because truth be told, it seems inevitable now. The EU Parliament will be voting on the “data retention directive” tomorrow and save for a miracle, the assembly will most likely more or less agree to the hard line stance put forward by the Commission.

Heise - Basically, Brussels is concerned with the storage of connection and location data created during the processing of services such as telephone calls, SMS, e-mails, surfing, and file sharing. These data archives will then be used to create profiles of the communication behavior and movements of suspects. The Christian and Social Democrats are calling for such data to be kept along with IP addresses for at least six and up to 24 months. The Greens and others reject the directive altogether or are at least calling for the re-inclusion of the stipulation that companies must be reimbursed for the costs thus incurred.

The Green have gotten it of course. The entire idea is rotten. And it seems extremely inappropriate even for a leftist like myself to demand that ISPs and telecom companies should bear the brunt of this folly.

In light of the efforts being taken in Brussels in the war on terrorism, the legislature seems to think that all of the EU’s 450 million citizens are suspicious. The electronic traces they leave are to be captured and archived in gigantic databases for months and even years and made accessible to security authorities.

And greedy corporations of course. We know because they have already said so. The future is uncertain but it is deeply troubling that this fundamental loss of integrity and liberty can pass with so few people crying out against it. Under the banner of anti-terrorism anything goes apparently. Keep going and people will actually have to leave Europe and seek asylum in the middle-east.