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data retention v. data preservation

  • 07-03-2003 10:25am
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 86 ✭✭


    I've been asked to make this clarification on the Freedom email list and thought people might find it helpful:

    Data retention is the retaining of traffic data -- traffic information on calls, and in the Irish case, they're also proposing emails and internet activity be included in the proposed data retention legislation -- in large databases. The idea is that it can be retrieved by law enforcement at a future point in case someone does something wrong.

    Data preservation is the preserving of data under warrant as it is being created (similar to a phone being tapped). Data is requested in the course of an investigation because of the suspicion of wrongdoing. This is how the FBI and other US law enforcement agencies function right now. Call data is already held for six months or longer by businesses anyway for billing purposes, in the US and in the EU.

    It's a bit easier to see the difference if you think in terms of data content rather than data traffic information: *retention* of content would allow all phonecalls to be recorded and stored in case someone wanted to listen to them in future, rather than, as with *preservation*, recorded as they are made, when a reasonable suspicion has been proven. NB: *content* retention is NOT being proposed by govt!)

    The purpose of the proposed legislation is to frame how traffic data will be held and for how long, and how/when it can be accessed and why.

    The simple arguments against data retention are:

    1) it means the State now views its citizens as potential criminals, rather than free citizens. This is a huge and historical shift in how democracies function
    2) databases of this sort are routinely abused (see my weblog privacy archive)
    3) data cannot be guaranteed not to have been tampered with
    4) data held by telcos is not under watertight security and many examples exist of such data been leaked, hacked, examined by telco employees (see my weblog archive)
    5) criminals can easily avoid leaving such data trails anyway
    6) for businesses, having sesitive data stored by a third party is a significant risk
    7) the EU is considering this but not US/Canada, and bizarrely, the US is where the EU push is coming from
    8) US businesses have clearly indicated they would be concerned having a data retention regime introduced here and there's little doubt it would damage inward investment
    9) data-focused business would consider going offshore or abroad
    10) this threatens Ireland's viability as an e-business center

    There's more as well but that gives some general pointers.

    Karlin Lillington


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