EDRI launches petition against data retention
European Digital Rights, together with the Dutch ISPs XS4ALL and Bit, launched an international petition today against mandatory data retention. The petition is aimed at the European Commission and the members of the European Parliament.
EDRI argues that retention of telecommunication traffic data is an invasive tool that interferes with the private life of all 450 million people in the European Union. Secondly, the petition points out that data retention is illegal under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, because it is disproportionate. Thirdly, the petition explains that security gained from retention may be illusory, as traffic data may easily point to another user and finally, the means through which this policy is being pursued are illegitimate.
In the next two months, EDRI hopes to collect an impressive amount of signatures from all over Europe, to convince Commission and Parliament that data retention is no solution against terrorism and crime. Supporters are kindly invited to help distribute information about this petition, by placing the banner on their sites or homepages and spread the news through mailinglists.
The petition-initiative will be presented during the opening speech of the open-air hacker event What the Hack, Thursday 28 July. During and after the event, everybody is invited to contribute to the website by adding translations in many languages and back-ground files.
The petition script uses confirmed opt-in to verify every signature. This means everybody has to provide the organisers with a valid e-mail address to receive the confirmation. The e-mail address will not be used for any other purpose. Only the name and country of every signer will be published publicly on the website and presented to Commission and Parliament. The specific privacy policy for this campaign guarantees that personal data will only be used for this specific purpose and all personal data will be destroyed after presentation of the list.
EDRI and ISP petition against data retention (in English and French)
http://www.dataretentionisnosolution.com