Freedom Not Fear: Europe's Growing Protest Against Net Surveillance

by via the EFF

Sat, May 31, 2008 9:58AM

Friday, May 30, 2008 :This weekend, marches and meetings across Germany will protest the overreaction of countries to the threat of terrorism, and the re-emergence of a surveillance state in that country. "Freedom Not Fear" is not a small event: over 20,000 people demonstrated in the last protest in September, and over thirty cities will be taking part in this weekend's demonstrations. The organizers hope to expand across Europe for an even larger protest on September 20th of this year.

What has prompted such a fierce reaction? The core of the protest is anger at the European Union's passing of the Directive on Mandatory Retention of Communications Traffic Data, an EU regulation that mandates all European ISPs and phone providers to keep records on every landline, cell and Internet phone call, every email sent, and every Internet connection session, for as long as two years.

The data retention directive was passed in March 2006, with a requirement that EU countries put its requirements into national law by September 2007. Many countries have been dragging their feet, however, faced with the daunting task of weakening existing privacy law, as well as negotiating with communication companies to install and maintain the extensive storage and monitoring equipment required.

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For more information: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/freed...

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