European data protection commissioners (DPCs) said they had ‘grav...

to telecom and Internet industry could be excessive, DPCs said Sept. 11. Moreover, they said, U.S. doesn’t require such retention. DPCs have “repeatedly emphasized that such retention would be an improper invasion” of fundamental rights granted by European Court of Human Rights, they said. Any data retention for law enforcement should be for limited time and where “necessary, appropriate and proportionate in a democratic society.” In specific cases, DPCs said, data should be held only where there was demonstrable need, retention period was as short as possible and practice was “clearly regulated by law” so as to minimize abuses: “Systematic retention of all kinds of traffic data for a period of one year or more would be clearly disproportionate and therefore unacceptable in any case.” Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR), U.K.-based think tank, praised DPC statement, saying it was “particularly timely warning for the U.K.,” where govt. was attempting to implement Dec. 2001 Antiterrorism Crime & Security Act. With concern over costs mounting, FIPR said, govt. has been pulling back on its data retention timescale. However, it said, dir. gen. of National Criminal Intelligence Service recently proposed storing traffic data for 2 years. Not only is that invasion of British citizens’ privacy, FIPR said, “the enormous costs of this data retention will immediately fall on consumers as higher bills.” DPCs are “totally right,” said Member of European Parliament Marco Cappato. In May, EP approved amendments to 1997 EU Telecommunications Data Protection Directive giving member states right to authorize data retention for limited periods of time for law enforcement. Cappato “would have appreciated an intervention” by DPCs before EP vote, he told us, because it “could have been useful to reject the socialist/popular compromise” that opened door to “this new general data retention legislative path.” Transnational Radical Party, of which Cappato is member, will do its best to add parliamentary initiatives to DPCs’ “important and welcomed words,” he said. Statewatch, U.K. organization that monitors civil liberties in EU, since has reported that “framework decision” was being drafted that would force all EU states to mandate data retention, possibly for as long as 12-24 months.