According to a publication in the Austrian e-zine Futurezone the USA have demanded extensive advance information from European postal services about packages before they are being shipped to the United States. The US border control system US-VISIT is already being fed with data about airline passengers before they enter the territory, but must now be extended with information about the origin and destination of all packages.
The federal German data protection authority Peter Schaar and chair of the workinggroup of European data protectioners has issued a fierce protest and told Futurezone: "I hold this proposal for highly problematic and have serious doubts about the admissibility of this data transfer." In a later statement to the German newschannel N24 Schaar added: "These data are subject to the postal secret, and may not be handed over to the German law enforcement. (...) The US must get used to the fact that their laws only apply to their own territory, and cannot oblige German companies on German territories."
If the plan is executed, the US will have an information lead of several days over the intended recipient of the package, and will be able to check the information against several databases to detect possible terrorists, and intercept suspect deliveries. Data about transatlantic airline passengers already have to be transferred in advance to US Customs, at least 15 minutes before departure. A PNR-record may contain 34 different items about a passenger, including name, address and credit card details. This agreement to transfer was signed by the Commission on 28 May 2004, in spite of massive and repeated protests from the European Parliament. The MEPs have now resorted to a final means of power, and have filed a legal complaint against the decision with the European Court of Justice.
Before this decision, airlines used to fax the passenger-list to US Customs shortly before departure. It is likely, according to Futurezone, that the postal services will have to follow a similar procedure; scan all address fields and collate them in an electronic document for transfer to the US.
Schaar told Futurezone the European Data protection authorities will debate about this new demand in September. He considers it as a problem with far reaching implications, and fears that the US will demand similar data about all postal traffic, including letters.
'USA fordern Paket-Verkehrsdaten' (in German, 12.08.2004) http://futurezone.orf.at/futurezone.orf?read=detail&id=243666
'Das glaeserne Paeckchen' (in German, 16.08.2004) http://www.n24.de/wirtschaft/wirtschaftspolitik/?a2004081613184884680
European Parliament asks Court of Justice to annul EU-US passenger data deal (25.06.2004) http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/ida/jsps/index.jsp?fuseAction=showDocument&a...
Playing the old Viking game of fox and geese, that seems to have been the guiding principle for EU Member States and Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso when they put together the group of people who will head the Brussels executive branch for the next five years. In some cases, the future Commissioners embody the exact opposite of what liberal-minded Europeans would consider a qualification.
Rocco Buttiglione, the new Commissioner presiding the Justice, Freedom and Security Directorate General - under the present Commissioner just called 'Justice and Home Affairs' - has a record of defending the impunity of his head of state, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who openly opposed the European arrest warrant for fear of some day becoming subject to such a warrant himself. While still Berlusconi's EU Affairs Minister, Buttiglione spoke out in favour of taking digital fingerprints of all immigrants, as a first step to scanning all Italian residents. Buttiglione was a low-profile backbencher when he was Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004. He did not take on a single report and teached Philosophy instead. He is known as a conservative Catholic who is close to the right-wing 'Communione e liberazione' movement and takes pride in his close links to Pope John Paul II.
There are also some doubts about the qualifications of Neelie Kroes, the successor to anti-trust Commissioner Mario Montio. As the e-zine 'The Register' revealed, she gave Bill Gates, the man on who's business behaviour her Directorate general will have to rule soon, an honorary degree when she was President of Nijenrode University, back in 1996. Already then, Microsoft was being investigated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for "unlawfully maintain(ing) its monopoly of personal computer operating systems and ... unreasonably restrain(ing) trade", but even today Kroes says she wouldn't have awarded Gates the degree if she hadn't thought he was "doing a good job".
Other disputed nominations for Commissioners include Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who will take Chris Patten's position as Commissioner for External Relations and Neighbourhood Policy, where she will have to deal with the transfer of personal information to third countries, such as the USA. Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner was Austrian Foreign Minister in the much-disputed Schüssel cabinet, which was boycotted for including for the first time the extreme-right Freedom party of Jörg Haider. She failed as the right wing's candidate in the Austrian presidential elections earlier this year.
Trade, including the whole area of international agreements on Intellectual Property rights, will be overseen by Peter Mandelson. Mr. Mandelson, who is one of the original inventors of 'New Labour', is a close personal ally of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, but had to step down twice from ministerial posts in the Blair cabinet after allegations of corruption. Sending Mandelson, who carries this stigma, to Brussels, risks further damage to the reputation of the EU in Britain, where Brussels is already stigmatised as a realm of nepotism and corruption.
'Questa sinistra è arretrata - l'unico problema è la privacy' (Interview with Rocco Buttilione in Italian, 11.05.2002) http://www.repubblica.it/online/politica/impronte/buttiglione/buttigli...
'Next EC antitrust czar was Bill Gates fan' (23.08.2004) http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/23/ec_antitrust_commissioner/
(Contribution by Andreas Dietl, EDRI EU Affairs Manager)
The European Commission has decided today, 25 August 2004, to examine in depth the joint acquisition by Microsoft and TimeWarner of ContentGuard. This company, formerly owned by Xerox, is a world market leader in so-called Digital Rights Management technology. It has developed the Extensible Rights Markup Language (XrML). Microsoft has eyed the company for a long time and made considerable investments before announcing last April to couple up with Media Company TimeWarner in order to buy the remainder of the company. In July, Microsoft and TimeWarner filed a request for clearance of the deal with the EU's merger control authorities. After a relatively brief review, the Commission has now decided to examine the planned acquisition in depth. "Under Microsoft's and Time Warner's joint ownership", the Commission declares in a press release issued today, "ContentGuard may have both the incentives and the ability to use its IPR portfolio to put Microsoft's rivals in the DRM solutions market at a competitive disadvantage." The merger controllers, still headed by the Italian Mario Monti, recall former competition cases involving browsers and media players. But they also take other EU objectives with a direct influence on competition issues into account: "This joint acquisition could also slow down the development of open interoperability standards. As such, this would allow the DRM solutions market to 'tip' towards the current leading provider, Microsoft." The Commission must reach a final conclusion within four months from now on, i.e. until 25 January 2005. Most of the investigation will then be headed by the Dutch Commissioner Neelie Kroes, who has a reputation of being more Microsoft-friendly than her predecessor Mr. Monti.
Commission opens in-depth investigation into Microsoft/Time Warner/ContentGuard JV (25.08.2004) http://tinyurl.com/3px5n
(Contribution by Andreas Dietl, EDRI EU Affairs Manager)
In an interview with The Times newspaper on 16 August, the UK Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has warned against the danger of 'sleepwalking into a surveillance society', as a result of ID cards and other plans. Mr Thomas said he was also uneasy about plans for a population register and a database of every child. He used General Franco's Spain as an example of what can happen when a state knows too much about its citizens.
Thomas said, although he is not for or against an ID card scheme itself,he was concerned about the government's failure to spell out their exact purpose. "The government has changed its line over the last two or three years as to what the card is intended for. You have to have clarity. Is it for the fight against terrorism? Is it to promote immigration control? Is it to provide access to public benefits and services?"
On 30 July 2004, a UK parliamentary committee wrote a similarly critical report and concluded that objections against the ID-card should not be lightly dismissed and that the proposed scheme to introduce biometric identity cards will 'represent a significant change in the relationships between the state and the individual in this country.'
Literally the Commissioner told The Times: "My anxiety is that we don't sleepwalk into a surveillance society where much more information is collected about people, accessible to far more people shared across many more boundaries, than British society would feel comfortable with."
According to an online BBC news item, a spokesman for the Home Office said the government remained committed to its plans for national identity cards which would, among other things, protect people against identity fraud and organised crime.
Mr Thomas also questioned the plans for a childrens database, championed by Margaret Hodge, Minister of State for Children. Mrs Hodge already won the Big Brother Award on 28 July 2004 as 'Worst public servant' for the plan. Under the scheme, every child would have a unique number which would enable the different organisations that come into contact with children, such as social services, police and educational bodies to share information.
Mr Thomas told the Times: "There are reasons why we need to promote better information sharing where children are at risk, but whether the answer is to create a database of every child in the country should be questioned."
Interview in The Times (requires registration) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-2-1218615,00.html
Watchdog's Big Brother UK warning (16.08.2004) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3568468.stm
UK Parliamentary Committee Releases Report Damning ID System (30.07.2004) http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd³³0³=x-347-63601
According to an article in the UK newspaper The Observer, computer and software manufacturers in Europe are to be forced to introduce new security measures to make it impossible for their products to be used to copy banknotes.
The move, to be drafted into European Union legislation before the end of the year, is presented as a necessary measure against people counterfeiting notes with the help of household equipment like laser printers, home scanners and graphics software.
Anti-counterfeiting software developed by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group, an organisation of 27 leading world banks including the European Central Bank, has been distributed free of charge to computer and software manufacturers since the beginning of the year. At present use of the software is voluntary though several companies have incorporated it into their products.
The latest version of Adobe Photoshop, a popular graphics package, already generates an error message if the user attempts to scan banknotes of main currencies. A number of printer manufactures have also incorporated the software so that only an inch or so of a banknote will reproduce.
The software relies on features built into leading currencies. Latest banknotes contain a pattern of five tiny circles. On the euro notes they appear in a constellation of stars. Imaging software or devices detect the pattern and refuse to deal with the image.
In his mailing list Politech, the US journalist Declan McCullagh raises doubt about the effectivity of the measure when applied to open source software. "It seems to me that the Eurocratic impulse, while understandable, relies on two important assumptions: end users cannot modify their own software, and the software vendor (or an affiliate) is subject to European law. Neither of these assumptions tends to be true when we're talking about free or open source software."
Security clampdown on the home PC banknote forgers (06.06.2004) http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1232480,00.html
Information from the bank consortium (including European Central Bank) http://www.rulesforuse.org/
Politech mailinglist archive
http://www.politechbot.com/
On 31 August the deadline closes for nominations for the Swiss Big Brother Awards. The organising committee has already received over 100 nominations and will publish a selection at the end of September 2004. The 5th annual Swiss ceremony of the Big Brother Awards will take place on 16 October in the city of Emmen. The slogan 'Nicht lamentieren, nominieren' (don't lament, nominate!) now calls on a special new category of victims of Big Brother; workers that are being controlled at the work-floor with the help of video-cameras and key-loggers. The other prices follow the international scheme of awarding awards to government, business and to a person for a 'life time achievement'. The Swiss also present a positive prize: The Winkelried Award, named after the legendary soldier Arnold von Winkelried who gave his life in a battle in the 14th century 'for the liberty of the land'.
The Swiss ceremony is organised by a coalition of civil liberty organisations, including EDRI-member SIUG.
Swiss Big Brother Awards http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch
Hall of shame previous Swiss winners http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch/diverses/hallofshame
International Big Brother Awards http://www.bigbrotherawards.org
The deadline is nearing for two important consultation rounds from the European Commission, on mandatory data retention and on copyright.
European Digital Rights is working hard on a thorough answer on the EU plans for mandatory retention of all internet and telephony traffic data. The document will be made publicly available on the EDRI website, and EDRI will participate in the public hearing following the consultation on 21 September 2004. But more input, both from the industry and civil society, is urgently needed in order to have any impact on the decision making process. EDRI calls on all readers of this newsletter to send in responses on the consultation and protest against the proposal to store extensive sensitive data about all EU citizens. At the request of Privacy International, the UK lawfirm Covington & Burlington has prepared an extensive legal argument against general data retention, for violating fundamental human rights. Please feel free to use any arguments from this document in your answer, with reference to the original document.
Consultation on data retention (deadline 15.09.2004) http://europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/ecomm/doc/useful_infor...
Privacy International data retention reports http://www.privacyinternational.org/retentionreports
The Commission allows the public much more time to ponder about fine-tuning copyright legislation. The deadline on this consultation expires on 31 October 2004. The consultation centres around a Commission working paper which suggests that current EU copyright legislation is generally effective and consistent, but would benefit from some improvements. The Commission has promised to take into account the results of the consultation before proposing legislative amendments within the next year or so.
An important issue with this consultation is the possible extension of copyright protection for recorded music from 50 years to 95, as lobbied for by some influential US rights holders. The working document however suggests that there is no apparent justification for such a change in the neighbouring rights, given that in nearly all other industrialised countries the relevant period is also 50 years. Support from civil society for this reasoning certainly seems important.
Consultation on copyright (deadline 31.10.2004) http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/04/955&...
NEW DATE! 27-28 August 2004, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 'Guaranteeing Media Freedom on the Internet' Two day conference organised by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Mr Miklos Haraszti, in the Amsterdam city hall.
http://www.osce.org/events/conferences/fom/2004amsterdam/
31 August 2004, Deadline for submissions Council of Europe Public consultation on future Council of Europe activities in the media field, in preparation of the 7th European Ministerial Conference on Mass Media Policy (Kiev, 10-11 March 2005). The main topics of the Conference will be: freedom of expression and information in times of crisis; cultural diversity and media pluralism in times of globalisation and human rights and regulation of the media and new communication services in the information society.
The CDMM would like to invite non-governmental organisations working in the media field in Europe and other interested persons to submit their ideas and proposals as regards these future activities. The proposals should not exceed 2 pages and should be sent to the Media Division, in English or French, by 31 August 2004 (mailto:media@coe.int). They will be analysed at a meeting of the Bureau of the CDMM on 7-8 September 2004. The results will be subsequently reviewed by the CDMM on 2-5 November 2004. Call for submissions
http://www.coe.int/T/E/human_rights/media/7_Links/consultation_announc...
7 September, Copenhagen, Denmark 'E-government and the protection of personal data' (conference in Danish) One day conference organised by Prosa (Danish union for IT workers), The Association of Legal Affairs, The Danish Institute for Human Rights, and the Danish Board of Technology.
https://www.prosa.dk/kursus/prosa/septemberkonferencen.shtml
13-14 September 2004, Geneva, Switzerland The TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) will host a two-day meeting in Geneva on the Future of WIPO. The meeting will bring together leading experts and stakeholders from academia, industry, NGOs, and governments, as well as members of the WIPO secretariat, to discuss the future of this United Nations Agency. To register for this event (no fee), contact: Ben Wallis, Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue Co-ordinator, Consumers International bwallis@consint.org
14-16 September 2004, Wroclaw, Poland The 26th International Conference on privacy and personal data protection: 'the Right to Privacy - the Right to Dignity'. This annual gathering of the world's data protection commissioners will be preceded on 13 June by a publicly accessible conference organised by EPIC, Privacy International and EDRI, called 'Privacy in a New Era: Challenges, Opportunities and Partnerships'
http://www.giodo.gov.pl/168/id_art/175/j/en/
http://www.thepublicvoice.org/events/wroclaw04/default.html
15-17 September 2004, Strasbourg, France The Council of Europe is planning a major international conference on "The Challenge of Cybercrime", which will bring together senior politicians, computer industry leaders and experts from around the world. No online information yet.
28 September 2004, Paris, France One day conference "Les reponses aux defis du peer to peer" (Answers to P2P challenges) at the French Senate, organised by the 'Forum des droits sur l'Internet'.
http://www.defis-p2p.org/
29-30 September 2004, Paris, France 5th Worldwide forum on electronic democracy, organised by Mr Andre Santini, French Member of Parliament and president of the Global Cities dialogue.
http://www.issy.com/statiques/e-democratie/index_EN.htm
30 September-3 October 2004, Berlin, Germany New EDRI-member FIfF is organising a conference '20 Years of FIfF - ReVisions of Critical Informatics'.The bilingual (German, English) conference will take place at the Humboldt University in Berlin.
http://www.fiff.de/2004/
16 October 2004, Emmen, Switzerland Swiss Big Brother Awards
http://www.bigbrotherawards.ch
26 October 2004, Vienna, Austria Austrian Big Brother Awards
http://www.bigbrotherawards.at
29 October 2004, Bielefeld, Germany German Big Brother Awards
http://www.bigbrotherawards.de