-------- Original Message -------- Subject: press release ISPO Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2005 17:38:01 +0200 From: Roosmarijn Ophof <roosmarijn.ophof@private> Dutch ISPs say no to data retention proposals Today an informal JHA meeting on data retention will start in Newcastle, UK. The Dutch ISP Association urges the Dutch and European Parliament to wait for the directive proposal of the European Commission on data retention. This proposal is expected to be announced officially on 21 September 2005. Although the ISP' s do have many objections against the principle of data retention , the first pillar procedure with respect to the adoption of European guidelines, which includes control by the European Parliament, is of course preferred instead of the undemocratic third pillar decision procedure of the JHA council. The Dutch ISP’s are therefore very much in favour of this first pillar procedure. In a letter to the European Commission and the European Parliament the ISPs stress several objections to the current proposals on data retention. First, there is no conclusive European Research on the usefulness or necessity of data retention. The Dutch Study of the Erasmus University on this subject has only proven that the current retention periods handled by ISPs for company purposes, are at least sufficient for requests of law enforcement agencies. Another point of concern is the reimbursement of cost for the providers. Although the Commission's proposal is mentioning reimbursement, the Dutch ISPs know from experience that the reimbursement fees as issued by the Dutch government will be extremely minimal. The providers themselves have for instance paid the cost for implementation of legal interception software and equipment. So far, the Dutch government has not been willing to allow for reimbursement of these cost, not even partial, despite promises in the past. Finally, the definitions on data that should be retained are open to interpretation and seem overly flexible. The letter to the European Commission and the annex on the Erasmus study can be found on www.ispo.nl: letter: http://www.ispo.nl/home/downloads/Bewaren_verkeersgegevens/Brief-EC-aug_2005.pdf commentary on Erasmus Study: http://www.ispo.nl/home/downloads/Bewaren_verkeersgegevens/Reactie_ISPO_op_Erasmus_rapport_(EN).pdf For more information, please contact: Roosmarijn Ophof, +31 20 530 4209 or send an email to roosmarijn.ophof@private -- Roosmarijn Ophof Bedrijfsjurist Demon Tel: +31 (0) 20 530 4209 | E-mail: roosmarijn.ophof@private Fax: +31 (0) 20 530 4278 | Internet: http://www.demon.nl Demon is een merknaam van THUS plc _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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