Europe ’snoop law’ objections
p2p news / p2pnet:- Corporate community efforts to have snoop laws introduce are being contested at every turn with the latest objections coming from European Council and Commission lawyers who say schemes to retaining telephone and Internet data are “partly illegal,” according to Tiscali.Europe.
Provisions in the draft Framework Decision to force telcos to retain phone and Net data would be illegal,” the story has the two groups saying. “This, they argue, is because the matter should instead be dealt with under EC internal market laws regulating telecommunications.”
However, neither the EC nor Commission lawyers addressed whether or not the proposed measures would infringe the right to privacy, says the story, pointing out that a prior Statewatch analysis showed the initial proposal suffered from profound and fundamental flaws.
“Statewatch says the initial proposal cannot be justified in light of the right to privacy guaranteed by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the general principles of EU law, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, national constitutions and other international human rights treaties,” says Tiscali.
“But if the proposed Framework Decision is split into two measures, as suggested by the legal services, the European Parliament will be able to show its concerns about the right to privacy. Parliament could then either veto the draft Directive or make fundamental changes to it, in order to ensure that this fundamental human right is protected.”
An online petition condemning the proposal had drawn 48,009 signatures by 10:26 am Pacific today.
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See:-
Tiscali.Europe – EU Lawyers Slam Data Retention Proposal , September 20, 2005
