Parliament told to vote against data storage laws

By Aoife White

Date: 12/05/05

MEPs are to be asked to vote at the civil liberties committee on 24 May on a report calling for France, the UK, Ireland and Sweden to withdraw their proposal for storing data on all EU telephone calls, faxes and emails.

The proposal to track communications during investigations into terrorism and other crimes, which was drafted in the wake of the 2004 Madrid bombings, has run into heavy criticism from telecoms companies, internet service providers (ISPs), business lobbies and civil rights groups.

Lawyers have already told EU justice and interior ministers that the Council of Ministers-led plan is illegal and that only the European Commission can propose legislation under telecommunications rules.

The Commission plans to put forward its own proposal on data retention in June.

The regulatory issues are further complicated by rapidly evolving technology. The emergence of phone calls made over the internet - voice over internet protocol (VoIP) - makes it more difficult for law enforcement officials to get hold of useful information on suspects' calls.

Internet calls are transformed into 'packets' of data sent between computer networks. Data packets can give information on the time and length of a conversation but it is hard to identify an internet protocol (IP) packet with a person since it can easily be faked or hijacked.

While VoIP has the look and feel of ordinary telephony, it is classified as an IP service. One of the most popular programs, Skype, has reported over 106 million downloads of its software. Data on free calls between computer users is not stored centrally, though both users can keep their own records.

Luxembourg-based Skype keeps data on its 3.6 million registered users in Europe for billing purposes. The company stresses that it complies with all current data regulations.

The increase in internet traffic means the Council is effectively asking ISPs to invest billions of euro in data collection, storage and processing without offering any compensation, said Klaus Landefeld of the European association of ISPs, EurISPA.

He said companies could not do this while aiming to offer a fast service at a competitive price to customers.

German Liberal MEP Alexander Alvaro said the Council's measures were "neither appropriate nor necessary". His report says the volume of data to be stored means that authorities may not be able to analyse all the information.

"Individuals involved in organised crime and terrorism will easily find a way to prevent their data from being traced...changing the IP or e-mail address when using an e-mail service or simply using internet service providers outside Europe not subject to data retention obligations."

Alvaro estimates that a large internet provider would be forced to store 20-40,000 terabytes of data. (The information in the printed collection of the US Library of Congress is estimated at 10 terabytes.) "With a data volume this huge, one search using existing technology, without additional investment, would take 50 to 100 years," he claims.

Erin Lynch of the Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing (FEDMA) said the plan did not meet basic standards of proportionality set out in the European Convention of Human Rights.

"We need intelligence and security but this is not the way," she said.

FEDMA and the European business lobby UNICE are calling for "data preservation" which stores specific data from selected users.

Civil rights group Privacy International described the Council proposal as "policy laundering", saying governments were trying to pass legislation by the EU back door which had failed to win support in national parliaments.

The Luxembourg presidency said negotiations on the Council text were ongoing. "There is no question of withdrawing it," a spokesman said.

Anticipation of a vote in the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on 24 May 2005 on a report by German Liberal MEP Alexander Alvaro, which would ask France, the UK, Ireland and Sweden to withdraw their proposal for storing data on all telephone calls, faxes and emails in the European Union. The proposal to track communications during investigations into terrorism and other crimes, which had been drafted in the wake of the 2004 Madrid bombings, had run into heavy criticism from telecoms companies, internet service providers (ISPs), business lobbies and civil rights groups.