EU denies plans to store private telecoms data

BRUSSELS - The European Union denied today that it was to launch proposals to make companies store records of private e-mails, faxes and phone calls -- measures which critics said would undermine civil liberties.

British-based group Statewatch said this week the EU was working on rules to force telephone firms and internet service providers to store data such as the source or time of a communication from one to two years for criminal investigations.

Denmark, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, said so far it was only consulting member states on how to bring their rules on data retention into line with each other and that in-depth guidelines were not under consideration.

"The proposal contains no detailed information as to what the contents of such rules should be," it said in a statement.

It was referring to a consultation document sent out to member states in June, which urges them to approve measures allowing EU countries to harmonise their rules on the obligations of telecommunications companies to retain data.

"There are no further proposals on the table regarding retention of traffic data and the Danish presidency is not engaged in drafting any such proposals," Denmark added.

Statewatch, which groups researchers, journalists and lawyers, said the EU was currently considering detailed proposals drawn up by Belgium that would force telecoms firms to hang on to traffic such as e-mails, faxes and normal phone calls for anything from 12 to 24 months.

It also said Denmark was pushing on with this work and that the rules would be compulsory for all member states.

"The traffic data of the whole population of the EU (and the countries joining) is to be held on record. It is a move from targeted surveillance to potentially universal surveillance," Statewatch said on its website.

It said that based on what it called the leaked Belgian proposal, the rules had "grave gaps in civil liberties protection".

The group said these included the fact that there were limits over what data could be exchanged, no reference to supervisory authorities on data protection and no reference to individuals' rights to correct, delete or block data.

- REUTERS

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