The excerpt below contains more information on the scheme, favored by President Bush and other domestic surveillance advocates, to force European ISPs to maintain long-term records of all internet traffic taking place on their servers. U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies hope to use this data retention requirement to bypass U.S. restrictions on conducting domestic surveillance of U.S. citizens, thus gaining access to their international internet activities.
EU: Data retention is no solution – petition: http://www.dataretentionisnosolution.com/
The EU is discussing proposals for the mandatory retention of traffic data for phones, faxes, e-mails, mobile phones (inc location) and internet usage for all communications by everyone.
Organizations opposed to such data retention schemes include: IRIS, France, BIT Internet B.V., Netherlands, Bits of Freedom, Netherlands, FIfF, Germany, Electronic Frontier Finland ry, Finland, Netzwerk Neue Medien, Germany Luna.nl, Netherlands, SIUG, Switzerland, Stop1984, Germany, CPSR-ES, Spain, Privacy International, UK, Statewatch, UK, GreenNet, UK, Digital Rights, Denmark and over 20,000 individuals.
I am on record, as well as my publication, The Multiracial Activist, against such data retention schemes (here, here and here) as part of several international coalitions.
Please consider adding your voice (sign as an individual on the front page or add your organization via the contact link).