Privacy: Data Retention Directive Challenged in Ireland
The Data Retention Directive (Directive 2006/24/EC of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC) requires EC member states to oblige telcos, ISPs and others to keep records of communications traffic data for each one of their customers for up to 3 years. As Becky Hogge, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group explained in her article in OpenDemocracy "An Irish challenge to the EU's snooping law", the retention of such data "would be more than enough to create a detailed picture of your colleagues, friends and lovers, your lifestyle, your movements, even your sleeping patterns." The directive was adopted after 7/7 and Madrid as a manoeuvre in the so-called "war on terrorism" but, as Ms Hogge observes, "sloppy wording" means that it could have much wider uses in...