[Rejestr] [edri-dr] Sign the letter to EU commissioners on data retention!

[Jozef Halbersztadt]

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Józef Halbersztadt 
Dear friends,
the Commission is currently considering to propose changes to the EU
data retention directive which we have always opposed as a flagrant
violation of our privacy. There is sigificant momentum at the moment to
abolish the system of mandatory blanket retention of all communications
data: critical comments by the new commissioners early this year,
critical constitutional court judgements, the imminent ECJ procedure
initiated by Digital Rights Ireland as well as a promising coalition
agreement by the new British government.
What would be helpful now, according to all experts, is a joint letter
by organisations from all over Europe, calling on the competent
commissioners to propose abandoning data retention. Broad pressure on
and support of the Commission is needed to trigger such a move.
Joe and I have drafted a letter to that effect (see below) and invite 
you to gather as much support for it as possible.
Please ask as many organisations as possible in your country to sign the 
letter:
- civil liberties, data protection and human rights associations
- crisis line and emergency call operators
- professional associations of journalists, jurists and doctors
- trade unions
- consumer organisations
- associations of the telecommunications and internet industry
- but no political organisations/parties please as this is to be a civil 
society initiative above party lines.
Please let me know the name, country, representative and e-mail address 
of all organisations that wish to sign the letter by Friday, 11 June 
2010. The letter will subsequently be posted and published. The time 
schedule is tight as the draft evaluation report of the data retention 
directive including the Commission's recommendations is presently being 
discussed by the Commission.
Help us stop data retention by making this letter a success and 
gathering as much support for it in your country as possible!
Best regards,
Patrick Breyer
German Working Group on Data Retention (AK Vorrat)
P.Breyer w vorratsdatenspeicherung.de
Draft letter (http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/DRletter) to
1. Viviane Reding, European Commission Vice-President in charge of 
Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, BE-1049 Brussels, Belgium
2. Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, BE-1049 
Brussels, Belgium:
Dear Madam,
The EU data retention directive 2006/24 requires telecommunications 
companies to store data about all of their customers' communications. 
Although ostensibly to reduce barriers to the single market, the 
Directive was proposed as a measure aimed at facilitating criminal 
investigations. The Directive creates a process for recording details of 
who communicated with whom via various electronic communications 
systems. In the case of mobile phone calls and SMS messages, the 
respective location of the users is also recorded. In combination with 
other data, Internet usage is also to be made traceable.
We believe that such invasive surveillance of the entire population is 
unacceptable. With a data retention regime in place, sensitive 
information about social contacts (including business contacts), 
movements and the private lives (e.g. contacts with physicians, lawyers, 
workers councils, psychologists, helplines) of 500 million Europeans is 
collected in the absence of any suspicion. Telecommunications data 
retention undermines the professional secrecy of lawyers, physicians, 
clergy, helplines and other professionals, creating the permanent risk 
of data losses and data abuses and deters citizens from making 
confidential telecommunication. It undermines the protection of 
journalistic sources and thus compromises the freedom of the press. 
Overall it damages preconditions of our open and democratic society. In 
the absence of a financial compensation scheme in most countries, the 
enormous costs of a telecommunications data retention regime must be 
borne by the thousands of affected telecommunications providers. This 
leads to price increases as well as the discontinuation of services, and 
indirectly burdens consumers.
Studies prove that the communications data available without data 
retention are generally sufficient for effective criminal 
investigations. Blanket data retention has proven to be superfluous, 
harmful or even unconstitutional in many states across Europe, such as 
Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Romania and Sweden. These states 
prosecute crime just as effectively using targeted instruments, such as 
the data preservation regime agreed in the Council of Europe Convention 
on Cybercrime. There is no proof that telecommunications data retention 
provides for better protection against crime. On the other hand, we can 
see that it costs billions of euros, puts the privacy of innocent people 
at risk, disrupts confidential communications and paves the way for an 
ever-increasing mass accumulation of information about the entire 
population.
Legal experts expect the European Court of Justice to follow the 
Constitutional Court of Romania as well as the European Court of Human 
Rights's Marper judgement and declare the retention of 
telecommunications data in the absence of any suspicion incompatible 
with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
As representatives of the citizens, the media, professionals and 
industry we collectively reject the directive on telecommunications data 
retention. We urge you to propose the repeal of the EU requirements 
regarding data retention in favour of a system of expedited preservation 
and targeted collection of traffic data as agreed in the Council of 
Europe's Convention on Cybercrime. In doing so, please be assured of our 
support.
Yours faithfully,
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