[Privsec] please spread: international petition campaign against data retention

[Ralf Bendrath]

Hi everybody,

EDRI (European digital rights, a federation of European NGOs where a few 
of us are also active) and some ISPs are starting an international 
petition campaign against data retention today.

The petition to the EU Parliament and Commission is currently available in 
English and French, more languages to come in the next few days: 
http://www.dataretentionisnosolution.com

Please spread the word widely, and sign up yourself.

Best, Ralf

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2. EDRI launches petition against data retention
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.15/retention
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European Digital Rights, together with the Dutch ISPs XS4ALL and Bit,
launched an international petition today against mandatory data
retention.

The petition is aimed at the European Commission and the members of the
European Parliament.

EDRI argues that retention of telecommunication traffic data is an
invasive tool that interferes with the private life of all 450 million
people in the European Union. Secondly, the petition points out that
data retention is illegal under Article 8 of the European Convention on 
Human Rights, because it is disproportionate. Thirdly, the petition 
explains that security gained from retention may be illusory, as traffic 
data may easily point to another user and finally, the means through which 
this policy is being pursued are illegitimate.

In the next two months, EDRI hopes to collect an impressive amount of
signatures from all over Europe, to convince Commission and Parliament
that data retention is no solution against terrorism and crime.
Supporters are kindly invited to help distribute information about this 
petition, by placing the banner on their sites or homepages and spread the 
news through mailinglists.

The petition-initiative will be presented during the opening speech of
the open-air hacker event What the Hack, Thursday 28 July. During and 
after the event, everybody is invited to contribute to the website by 
adding translations in many other languages and back-ground files.

The petition script uses confirmed opt-in to verify every signature.
This means everybody has to provide the organisers with a valid e-mail
address to receive the confirmation. The e-mail address will not be used 
for any other purpose. Only the name and country of every signer will be
published publicly on the website and presented to Commission and 
Parliament. The specific privacy policy for this campaign guarantees that 
personal data will only be used for this specific purpose and all personal 
data will be destroyed after presentation of the list.

EDRI and ISP petition against data retention:

http://www.dataretentionisnosolution.com