Data Retention Directive
Encyclopedia
The Data Retention Directive, more formally "Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC" is a controversial Directive
issued by the European Union
and relates to Telecommunications data retention
.
According to the directive, member states will have to store citizens' telecommunications data for six to 24 months stipulating a maximum time period. Under the directive the police and security agencies will be able to request access to details such as IP address and time of use of every email, phone call and text message sent or received. A request to access the information will be possible only with a court order.
The Data Retention Directive has sparked serious concerns from physicians, journalists, privacy
and human rights
groups, unions, IT security firms and legal experts.
European Union directive
A directive is a legislative act of the European Union, which requires member states to achieve a particular result without dictating the means of achieving that result. It can be distinguished from regulations which are self-executing and do not require any implementing measures. Directives...
issued by the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and relates to Telecommunications data retention
Telecommunications data retention
In the field of telecommunications, data retention generally refers to the storage of call detail records of telephony and internet traffic and transaction data by governments and commercial organisations...
.
According to the directive, member states will have to store citizens' telecommunications data for six to 24 months stipulating a maximum time period. Under the directive the police and security agencies will be able to request access to details such as IP address and time of use of every email, phone call and text message sent or received. A request to access the information will be possible only with a court order.
The Data Retention Directive has sparked serious concerns from physicians, journalists, privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
groups, unions, IT security firms and legal experts.
See also
- Written declaration 29, an adopted proposition signed by Anna ZáborskáAnna ZáborskáAnna Záborská is a Slovak Member of the European Parliament. She was elected on the Christian Democratic Movement ticket and sits with the European People's Party group....
and Tiziano Motti to extend the Data Retention Directive to monitor search engineSearch engineA search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
traffic - Telecommunications data retentionTelecommunications data retentionIn the field of telecommunications, data retention generally refers to the storage of call detail records of telephony and internet traffic and transaction data by governments and commercial organisations...
Further reading
- The Court of Justice of the European Communities: Action brought on 6 July 2006 — Ireland v Council of the European Union, European Parliament...
- de Vries, Bellanova, de Hert, Gutwirth: The German Constitutional Court Judgement on Data Retention.
External links
- Text of the directive and national provisions on data retention communicated by the member states. (HTML and PDF)
- Overview of implementation in the EU
- Breyer, P.: http://www.daten-speicherung.de/data/data_retention_and_human_rights_essay.pdf"Telecommunications Data Retention and Human Rights: The Compatibility of Blanket Traffic Data Retention with the ECHREuropean Convention on Human RightsThe Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
"]. European Law Journal, May 2005. (PDF-File, 82 KB) - Centre for European Policy Studies (CEP): Policy Brief on Data Retention (2011]. (PDF-File)
- Crump, C.: Data retention: privacy, anonymity, and accountability online (2003). 56 Stanford Law Review 191-229. (PDF-File)
- European Digital RightsEuropean Digital RightsEuropean Digital Rights is an international advocacy group headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. EDRi was founded in June 2002 in Berlin by ten NGOs from seven countries....
: EDRI news tracking page on data retention (current) - Feiler, L.: The Data Retention Directive (2008). Seminar paper. (PDF-File)
- Ganj, C.: The Lives of Other Judges: Effects of the Romanian Data Retention Judgment (December 4, 2009). (PDF-File)
- Goemans, C. and Dumortier, J.: "Mandatory retention of traffic data in the EU: possible impact on privacy and on-line anonymity. Digital Anonymity and the Law, series IT & Law/2, T.M.C. Asser Press, 2003, p 161-183. (PDF-File)
- Milford, P.: "The Data Retention Directive: too fast, too furious a response? (2008). LLM Dissertation – Southampton Business School. (PDF-File)
- Mitrou, L.: "Communications Data Retention: A Pandora’s Box for Rights and Liberties?" From Digital Privacy: Theory, Technologies, and Practices edited by Alessandro Acquisti, Stefanos Gritzalis, Costos Lambrinoudakis and Sabrina di Vimercati. Auerbach Publications, 2008. (PDF-File)
- Morariu, M.: "How Secure is to Remain Private? On the Controversies of the European Data Retention Directive" (2009). Amsterdam Social Science, Vol. 1(2): p. 46-65. (PDF-File)
- StatewatchStatewatchStatewatch is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 that monitors the state and civil liberties in the European Union. It is composed of lawyers, academics, journalists, researchers and community activists. Its European network of contributors is drawn from 14 countries...
: The surveillance of telecommunications in the EU. - Walker, C., & Akdeniz, Y.: "Anti-Terrorism laws and data retention: war is over?". Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 54(2), Summer edition 2003, 159-182. (PDF-File, 97 KB)
- Working Group on Data Retention: List of documents relating to communications data retention in the EU (current)