Digital Rights Ireland (of which I am a Director) is making the running against Irish and European data retention legislation (see, for example, Part 7 of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act, 2005 in Ireland, and the EU Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC).

However, and unfortunately, Ireland is not the only country in which government seeks to compel the retention of its citizens’ traffic data; in fact, the phenomenon of data retention is fast becoming ubiquituous; unsurprisingly, therefore, it’s happening too in the US. The Centre for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has just published an analysis of various bills pending before the Congress (pdf) in which the legitimate aim of the protection of children online is used as cover for alarming government intrusion on all aspects of online life. Given that law enforcement agencies want to be able to monitor significant traffic data (to say nothing of the traffic itself), it is perhaps to be expected that they should attempt to justify that end on this child-protection basis. However, reflecting a CDT report (pdf) of last June on data retention generally, this week’s report cogently summarizes the case against data retention in language as applicable in Ireland and Europe as it is in the US.…

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