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Apparently EU Directive 2006/24/EG [PDF link] forces all EU states to spy on their citizens. We're talking logs of every email, landline, mobile, SMS and VOIP conversation you have, including the geographic location of you in the case of mobiles/SMS. Now I know we already have semi-secret systems like that, but I can't believe they're taking it to the level of having the monitoring of citizens enforced by law. 1984 and THX 1138 anyone?
The link to the actual document is in German, maybe Iris could check over it for me? :P
Can't we have good old Echelon back? Better the devil you know (and can flood with trigger words).
I didn't manage to slog through the whole thing (legalese is no more pleasant in German than in English I'm sure), but honestly, I'm not too worried; these things tend to get blown way out of proportion. It says that the companies don't have to store any new information, just keep what they already record for billing purposes and such a little longer, the usual privacy guidelines still apply and so on. Also, storing the content of conversations is outright forbidden.
ReplyDeleteHeh, I didn't expect you to actually expose yourself to the rubbish in that type of document. Legalese has got to be one of the most boring things no matter what language it's in.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't think it's a problem then I'm happy. For now... *scowls at EU*