19.08.2006 21:32
German data retention doubts
I have thought that data retention is suse in the EU. It seems that it's not the case. Heise.de is writing about an report for German parliment about the changes needed to implement data retention directive. It concludes that it may be impossible without getting into conflict with constitution-backed rights.
It's quite interesting as I have not seen many opinions stating that storing detailed connection data breaks the right to privacy.
I'm not very optimist about this. I guess the directive will be finally passed (with anonymous networks growing and new solutions beeing introduced), but it's worth watching how the situation progresses.
12.08.2006 17:25
Privacy and secutity throughts
After the recent London events I expect new privacy-related initiatives.
Biometric passports are (at least here in Europe) nearly certain. With open questions about the data stored, methods of accessing the data and so on.
In Poland, for example, biometric passports will be released from August 28, this year. The regulations are so general, that all you can learn about the way the data is written is that 'it's on the chip'. There's no single word about data security. I'd like to know, at least, if the data is encrypted and how is it protected from unauthorized access. Also, there's nothing about the way the data is stored in the databases (it's a good guess that there's one) and who has access to it. And, well... what's exactly stored? Ironically, the Ministry's site is stating that biometrics is used to protect against identity theft.
I have also read a number of discussions about the recent events and earlier, about privacy concerns. There's a very visible contrast in attitues. Many people are ready to give up much of their freedem to have (an illusion of?) security. What's more, it's not uncommon to read something that has similar meaning to 'if you're not an terrorist, why are you against police reading your emails?'.