Privacy Campaigners Demand Data Retention Synchronisation
July 20th, 2010 by adminEU privacy regulators call for telecommunication companies to reduce data retention to less than two years.
Article 29 Working Party is a committee that has been created by privacy watchdogs from all over the European Union coming together as one from all 27 member states. The committee has proposed amendments to the Data Retention Directive to ensure individuals privacy rights are met as well as improved.
The EU Directive operates to compel all EU member countries to pass laws that require all telecommunications companies, including internet service providers, to record the details of calls and online behaviour for the benefit of the authorities should a security breach occur. Within the Directive, each of the 27 member states has the option to impose a data retention period upon companies of 6 months to 2 years.
The European Commission has committed to commence an investigation into the impact of the Directive by September this year. The European Commission will inform the European Council and Parliament of its findings and provide instruction as to whether the Directive should be modified.
The Article 29 Working Party is hopeful that the European Committee will consider the recommendations they have made.
The concern over the current Directive is that the domestic law is not consistent throughout the 27 member states as they can each legally alter the scope of the data retention period. As a result of this, each member state interpreted that Directive differently in regard to the legal extent of the retention of data.
The committee wants the European Commission to set a blanket limit for the retention of data to ensure EU citizens receive equal privacy rights. The committee has recommended that the maximum data retention period of 2 years be shortened if a blanket limit is not set.
