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Thanks to Italian MP Maurizio Turco (Rosa nel Pugno) a law proposal on data retention authored by the Winston Smith Project has been recently submitted to the Italian Parliament as DDL (Disegno di Legge) number 1728.

The proposal, whose title is "Regulations for the collection, usage, retention and deletion of geo-referenced or chrono-referenced data, containing unique user identifiers, through automatic devices" aims to limit the "side effects" of the current "data retention culture", in which - due to political and technological reasons - logging and retention of all sorts of data is the norm rather than the exception.

According to the explanatory text of the proposal, ISP connections, web

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On 8 November 2006, the German Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries presented a draft law aimed at transposing the EU directive on data retention. The law would override the recent jurisprudence on IP logging by mandating the retention of traffic data for a period of six months.

Retention requirements are also to apply to anonymization services, making them practically superfluous. Furthermore anonymous e-mail accounts are to be banned. Access to traffic data shall be permissible for the investigation of "substantial" offences, but also for the investigation of any offence committed by use of telecommunications networks (including sharing of copyrighted content). The law is to enter into force on 15 September 2007.

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On 25 September, the German Working Group against Data Retention (Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung) started an online campaign against the mandatory storage of all communications data. Through a special web portal, concerned citizens can send electronic open letters to all 448 parliamentarians of the ruling grand coalition and raise their concern and protest against data retention. The letters are also anonymized and published on the portal website. There is no pre-defined text for the letters that the senders have to write themselves, so such a letter could not be considered spam. The working group is only giving advice on its main website on how to frame the arguments in the letter.

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Digital Rights Ireland was established last year to further civil rights in the Digital Age. We are challenging the European Institutions and the Irish government through the courts to stop their program of mass surveillance of citizens. Our litigation will have an impact on digital rights across Europe.

Every day you move around in society you benefit from an invisible web of rights, built up over hundreds of years, which allow you to do the things you take for granted without unwarranted interference. Things like sending a letter knowing that it won't be monitored by the state along the way. Things like meeting people or going to public lectures without being followed by

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Although concerns have been expressed by the scientific services of the German Parliament's lower chamber on the implementation of the EU directive on data retention, the Ministry of Justice continues with its work on a draft bill in this matter.

Doubts have been expressed by the scientists on the compatibility of the EU directive with the fundamental privacy rights recognized by the EU and especially in relation to the German Constitution, which guarantees the citizens the right to privacy.

The choice of procedure - the data retention directive was initially submitted as a framework decision, but withdrawn since it would not get unanimity of votes - has been questioned as usually such a procedure is

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The Irish Government filed a challenge to the data retention directive on 6 July 2006. The challenge had been announced some time before by the Minister for Justice but was filed just before the time limit for the action had expired.

The case challenges the legal basis for the directive, alleging that this was a matter relating to criminal justice and as such the appropriate measure would have been a framework decision under the third pillar. The challenge is purely procedural in nature, however, and does not address privacy concerns about the directive. It appears that Slovakia, which shared Ireland's concerns about the legal basis and also voted against the directive, has decided not to bring a challenge of its own but will

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The long awaited draft administrative order on data retention in Denmark is now public. The draft, which implements the data retention provisions in the anti-terrorism law of June 2002, is currently submitted to a group of telecoms, business associations, NGOs, and public authorities for consultations with deadline on 10 August 2006.

The proposal drafted by the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Science & Technology, with the advice of a small group of telecom representatives, is more limited in scope than the previous draft of Spring 2004. The proposal implements part of the recent EU data retention directive but is more invasive, since it includes Internet session data.

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UK government has launched a consultation on codes of practice covering the implementation of its communications surveillance laws that, lately, have been largely debated on by privacy campaigners, internet service providers as well as security specialists.

The UK Government has launched a public consultation on Part I and III of The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) Chapter II giving increased power to public authorities in their access to citizens' communications data.

The Home Office has published draft codes of practice for both parts of the act for a 12-week consultation period, stating that the present text has been modified to take into consideration the current practices, to