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Deutsch: Freiheit statt Angst – Stoppt den Überwachungswahn!

For the fourth consecutive time, this year the International Action Day took place on 11 September under the motto "Freedom not Fear 2010 - Stop Surveillance Mania".

The events that took place in several European towns such as Berlin, Stockholm, Warsaw, Helsinki, Paris, Venice, Vienna and Luxembourg were organised and supported by a coalition of more than 150 organisations, including political parties, professional associations, trade unions and freedom activists.

What were the organisers asking for? Mainly, a cutback on surveillance measures including data retention laws and the collection of biometric data, "no European wide standardized state run collection of information", no data exchange with the USA without proper data protection laws, no blank registration of PNR data, "no systematic surveillance of financial transactions data or similar mass data analysis in the EU (SWIFT)" and no secret searches of online or offline PC systems.

In Berlin at the largest action of the Freedom not Fear 2010, about 7500 people demonstrated for better data protection and less intrusion on privacy. One of the main concerns expressed was related to the centralization of health, financial, telecommunications and employment data. The demonstrators were carrying banners such as "Freedom is dying with security", "I have something to hide: my privacy" or "my data belongs to me".

During the rally, Frank Bsirske, head of the trade union Verdi, called for the cancellation of the ELENA database introduced in Germany at the beginning of 2010 that covers employee income information. He said that during the last 80 years in Europea many cases have showed that data collection could be used for "insane purposes." He also called for the cancellation of data retention laws.

Although in Germany the Constitutional Court decided against data retention in March 2010, Rosemarie Will, National Chairman of the Humanist Union stated during the rally that the victory was not complete as the court left an open back door for a come-back of the law. The court did not annul the legislation but only suspended it asking for its modification in order to ensure stricter and safer conditions for the storage and use of the collected data.

Thilo Weichert, state data protection representative from Schleswig-Holstein, expressed his opinion that the authorities should act more professionally when pursuing criminals using the internet. "The population needs freedom of information and opinion, not total control," he said.

The demonstrators also criticized systems, such as the SWIFT agreement or PNR systems, that allow the transfer of personal and bank data to the US authorities without proper data protection measures.

Protestors take to the street to call for better data protection (12.09.2010)
http://www.dw-world.de:80/dw/article/0,,5996875,00.html

Thousands in Germany rally for data privacy - PressTV (11.09.2010)
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=GCZt-OyfDOQ

Large rally on Potsdamer Platz closes successful demonstration (11.09.2010)
http://blog.freiheitstattangst.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/press-rele...

Colourful rally moves through the centre of the German capital (11.09.2010)
http://blog.freiheitstattangst.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/press-rele...

Demonstration "freedom instead of fear!" (15.09.2010)
http://blog.freiheitstattangst.de/2010/09/das-war-fsa10-2/

Freedom not Fear 2010 in Poland (only in Polish, 9.09.2010)
http://www.panoptykon.org/component/content/article/46-fundacja-panopt...

EDRi-gram: German Federal Constitutional Court rejects data retention law (10.03.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.5/german-decision-data-retention-...