Privacy eroded post-11 September, rights group claims

Date: 12/09/02

By Paul Gallagher

CIVIL liberties campaigners claim that data privacy rights have been substantially eroded as a result of a knee-jerk response to the attacks on the US a year ago.

Tony Bunyan, of human rights group Statewatch, says there has been little or no debate in the EU over proposals for telecom firms to retain data such as emails and telephone calls, without the customer's permission.

Bunyan argues that the European Parliament and member states are set on rushing through new directives without proper checks and balances to ensure legislation does not impinge on civil liberties.

'There is a new ideological level around today. Measures such as those concerning data retention would normally have taken years to debate but, in the post-11 September world, they are pushed right to the top of the agenda and rushed through. The so-called definition of 'terrorism' is used as a guise for reforms, especially within the EU, for things that have nothing to do with terror, such as protests and data privacy.'

In particular, Bunyan points the finger at the Council of Ministers for pushing through laws by written procedure. The Council's 'common position on combating terrorism' was simply circulated to member states and adopted provided no objections were raised. This, he says, does not amount to democratic scrutiny.

A key issue concerning many campaigners is the proposed directive on the exchange of private information between national police forces. If it gets the green light, telecommunications firms will have to store numbers and addresses of calls and emails sent and received by EU citizens.

This 'traffic data' will then be made available to member states.

Although the period for which the data must be retained - a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 24 months - is not considered disproportionate, the EU has conceded that the plan involves an invasion of privacy.

'This is what I'd call getting on with the job and blow democracy,' says Bunyan. 'There have been legitimate government measures, such as the increase in airline security which is clearly important, but this is a muddying of the water. Too many things that have started off as 'terror' have been transformed into areas such as general crime and data retention.'

With so much legislation already on the statute books, however, campaigners are not hopeful that the tide of civil liberties infringements will be sandbagged in the near future.

'It will take an awful long time to halt this process and turn things around,' concludes Bunyan.

The aura of pessimism was heightened after a report last week claimed that surveillance across the world has 'significantly increased' within the past year. France, Germany and the UK are among 11 countries to have rushed through anti-terrorism measures affecting privacy, according to the findings by the Privacy International and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington DC.

Civil liberties campaigners claim that data privacy rights have been substantially eroded as a result of a knee-jerk response to the attacks on the United States a year ago.