Developments on Mandatory Data Retention

The European Parliament has finally approved data retention proposals with 378 votes in favour and 197 against, 30 abstentions in the first reading of the Data Retention Directive. The Directive aims to cover traffic and location data generated by telephony, SMS and internet, but not the content of the information communicated. A number of amendments have been proposed and include the need to restric the use of retained data to ensure that the future law respects the privacy of telephone and internet users. According to the press release, 'the directive will provide for data to be retained by the telecommunications companies for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 24. MEPs also added a provision for “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” penal sanctions for companies who fail to store the data or misuse the retained information.' For further details, see http://www.europarl.eu.int/oeil/file.jsp?id=5275032 and the recent Data Retention Petition campaign at http://wiki.dataretentionisnosolution.com:81/index.php/Main_Page.