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EU Data-Retention Plan Spurs Outcry
by Winter Casey
As European governments work toward legislation to implement a directive on data retention by a September 2007 deadline, service providers and industry organizations need to work with regulatory agencies and governments to favorably influence the end result, according to analysts.
A key component of the directive calls for service providers and operators to respond to requests from authorities "without undue delay." European Union member-states, however, will have to clarify what "undue delay" means, the research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan said.
The EU directive, approved last spring, requires communication service providers and network operators to retain traffic and location data -- such as e-mails, telephone calls, facsimiles, and text messages -- for minimum and maximum periods to prevent and counter crime. EU nations must conform their laws to the directive by the deadline. Although, they may postpone application of it as it relates to Internet access, Internet telephony and e-mail.
Updating systems to satisfy the law "will result in an onerous burden on communications service providers and operators," Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Fernando Elizalde said in a recent study. "The provisions of the EU directive will apply not just to mobile and fixed telephony but also to Internet telephony, e-mail services and messaging services."
The consulting firm also said systems to record call details will need to be updated to handle the increase in communication and traffic data that will need to be stored.
The directive seeks to harmonize the varying data-retention laws in Europe and ensure the legal availability of data to combat crime, according to the international commercial law firm Bird & Bird.
Gus Hosein, a senior fellow at Privacy International, said it is not better for EU countries to harmonize their laws under the directive because it is a bad policy stemming from "bad politics" that allows indiscriminate data collection. He said all people's information will be retained in case one specific individual is suspected of a crime.
Before the directive, only five countries had data-retention laws, "and even then only by the skin of their parliaments' teeth," Hosein said.
In September, the Irish civil rights group Digital Rights Ireland said it had launched legal proceedings against the Irish government to challenge the directive. The group called the plan a breach of human rights. Hosein said another case in Ireland seeks a three-year retention policy applying only to telephones.
Early last year, the U.K. Internet Services Providers' Association expressed concern over the cost of the directive and how it would affect emerging technologies. The directive is negative for industry because it contains poorly defined terms, unclear objectives, uncertain safeguards and uneven application across the European Union, Hosein said.
The European Commission will evaluate the directive's success and impact on industry and consumers by September 2010.
Latvia Awards E-Passport Contract
The Munich-based technology group Giesecke & Devrient has been awarded a contract by the Latvian government to produce 1.1 million electronic passports over the next five years.
The company also will provide systems for issuing and processing the documents. The first e-passports, which will feature a chip for storing biometric data, are set for issuance in the third quarter of 2007. The passports will include digital photographs and, starting in 2008, will include two of the passport holders' fingerprints.
The company is using the guidelines for e-passports developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations' agency. The recommendations are being used across the European Union. Latvia has been a member of the European Union since 2004.
Official Says Competition Equals Innovation, Productivity
Good competition policy is key for innovation and increased productivity, European Commissioner for Competition Policy Neelie Kroes said in a speech Monday to the Paris-based European American Press Club.
Kroes said she plans to review the strategic objectives she outlined two years ago to improve EU competitiveness. Those include: renewing the legislative framework for state subsidies; supporting more effective enforcement in antitrust and merger cases; and promoting a proactive competition policy as opposed to a reactive, case-based approach.
"State aid is in principle banned in Europe," Kroes said. "In general state subsidies distort the market, resulting in less competitive businesses, less innovation and higher prices for consumers." She added, however, that "there are some cases where the benefits of limited, efficient, equitable and carefully targeted state aid can outweigh the distortion caused and hence can be allowed."
The European Commission, meanwhile, has called on Luxembourg to comply within two months to a Court of Justice ruling to simplify access to telecommunication markets. The June 2003 decision found that Luxembourg lacked transparency in its plan to deploy telecom networks along roads and railway lines.
The commission said that despite improvements in its legislation, Luxembourg has not satisfied the ruling. If Luxembourg continues on that path, the commission may refer the matter to the court for a second time and Luxembourg could be fined.
In other news, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and President Bush met at the White House on Monday to discuss ways to promote international trade and improve relations between the European Union and the United States.
Women In Science And Technology
U.S. Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky is co-hosting a conference this week in Kuwait on female leaders in science, technology and engineering.
The conference is being sponsored by Kuwaiti Prime Minister H.H. Shaykh Naser Mohammad Al-Sabah and co-hosted by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the U.S. co-sponsor.
The meeting brings together teams of female scientists, researchers and students from 20 Muslim-dominated countries to discuss the role of women in science and education. The meeting also seeks to improve ties between the women and their U.S. counterparts. A number of top U.S. experts from industry, academia and government are slated to attend the conference.
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