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Deutsch: Evaluierung der Vorratsdatenspeicherung: Das Unerwartete erwarten?

The evaluation of the controversial Data Retention Directive takes an unexpected turn, for the worse. At a crucial one-day conference in Brussels on 3 December 2010, aimed at gathering input for the evaluation, long-term critic of the Directive Commissioner Malmström (DG Home Affairs) surprisingly announced that "data retention is here to stay".

The statement not only disregards legal developments since 2005, the damage done by telecommunications data retention to 500 million Europeans and the lack of evidence that such a measure is necessary and proportionate.

On 3 December, the European Commission organised a one-day conference on the Data Retention Directive, bringing together police forces, national ministries, data protection authorities and civil society.

European Digital Rights (Axel Arnbak from Dutch member Bits of Freedom) gave one of the speeches which opened the event. The script can be downloaded from: http://www.edri.org/files/Data_Retention_Conference_031210final.pdf

The speech addressed the legal changes and precedents (the Marper case, the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, the oath of the Commissioners to respect the Fundamental Rights Charter, etc) since the adoption of the Directive, examples of the harm caused by the Directive.

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Deutsch: Panoptykon auf der Suche nach dem Sinn der anlasslosen Vorratsdatenspe...

On 9 and 10 November 2010 the representatives of the EDRi-member Panoptykon Foundation met with the representatives of the European Commission in order to discuss the evaluation of the Data Retention Directive (DRD) and the rationale behind the regime of blanket data retention . The meetings were held with representatives from Reding Cabinet first and secondly with members of the Directorate General for Home Affairs - DG Home.

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Deutsch: Diskussion der Vorratsdatenspeicherung quer durch Europa

While in Germany the Minister of Justice rejects the current data retention regime, Sweden is preparing to implement it. In the meantime, the European Commission is organizing a public debate on the review of the directive, but has delayed its final report on the revision.

The Swedish Government has proposed a draft law to implement the data retention directive, asking for a six month period of keeping the trafficdata of electronic communications.

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Macedonian: Продолжува битката против задржување....

Deutsch: Fortsetzung im Kampf gegen die Vorratsdatenspeicherung

During the 32nd Annual Conference of the Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners "Privacy: Generations" that took place on 27 and 28 October 2010, EDRi-member Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called for the abolition of the European Union's Data Retention Directive.

"The Data Retention Directive is highly controversial, if not wildly unpopular throughout the European Union.

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Deutsch: Vorratsdatenspeicherung gefährdet Menschenleben

A report published on 8 October 2010 by German civil liberties activists reveals that human lives are put at risk by the retention of all telecommunication data.

According to the report, the data retention policy has endangered scientific research, caused unemployment, encouraged corruption, promoted the abuse of personal data and hindered the prosecution of crime.

The report gives examples of cases when the registration of communication data failed to help the police in stopping criminals and how criminals might have used more discreet ways of communicating and internet cafes to disguise the origin and destinatio

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Deutsch: WP29 Datenschutzgruppe kritisiert Umsetzung der Vorratsdatenspeicherun...

Article 29 Working Party (WP29) adopted during their meeting on 12-14 July 2010 a report on the implementation of the European data retention directive 2006/24/EC reaching the conclusion that the directive is currently not applied in a homogenous manner by all EU member states.

The report, which is a result of a joint inquiry performed by data protection authorities in EU member states, shows that the European directive is interpreted and implemented differently in the EU countries. According to the directive, the member states may choose a retention period between 6-24 months.

"The Article 29 W

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Deutsch: Vorratsdatenspeicherung – Zeit für evidenzbasierte Entscheidungen

In June 2010 the European Parliament adopted a farcical "written declaration" ostensibly on the creation of an "early warning system" to fight pedophiles. Funded by unknown sources, the MEPs in charge (Zaborska from the Czech Republic and Motti from Italy) put together the Declaration in order to promote the retention of communications data and the extension of this practice to "search engines".

After tabling the declaration, a highly polished, American-style lobby campaign went into operation.