| privacy 2002-11-21 |
| Germany and Austria stand alone among European countries expressing reservations about controversial European Union data retention proposals.
At present, service providers retain data only for billing purposes, but that is set to change because of plans that would compel ISPs to retain data for up to two years, in case the information became of might prove useful in police or security service investigations into serious crime or terrorism. This data would include catalogues of web sites visited, records of e-mail recipients, lists of telephone numbers dialled, and the geographical location of mobile phones at all times they were switched on. It doesn't include the contents of messages. |
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