Privacy International and European Digital Rights have published their joint answer to the consultation on mandatory data retention. The Directorate Generals on Information Society and on Justice and Home Affairs from the European Commission asked for public comments on a proposed retention regime across Europe between 12 and 36 months for all traffic data generated by using telephony (fixed and mobile) and internet.

The retention of personal data resulting from communications, or of traffic data, is necessarily an invasive act. With the introduction of new technology like mobile telephony and internet, the extent of invasiveness has progressed enormously. It is no longer possible to distinguish clearly between the 'simple' traffic data generated by fixed telephony networks and the contents of the communication itself

The Article 29 Working Party (all the EU Data Protection Authorities) has released an opinion on the inclusion of biometrics in visa and residence permits for third country nationals. The EU is planning to introduce biometric identifiers in visa and residence permits and to establish a information system on visas (VIS).

The visa and permits will have a contact-less chip which will contain a full-face digital photograph of the holder together with two digital fingerprints.

The Working Party expresses great reservations towards the plans, especially with regard to proportionality issues. The Working Party considers the use of biometrics to establish a more reliable link between visas or residence permits and their holders as legitimate. But a plan to store the biometric identifiers not only in the chip but also in a central database causes major difficulties.

"We are currently renegotiating the open society", Gus Hosein from Privacy International stated at a conference on E-government and the protection of personal data in the Danish Parliament on Tuesday 7 September.

The vision of the Danish e-government initiative is one in which personal data are increasingly floating across traditional institutional borders, without paying much attention to the privacy challenges this raises. The conference addressed a number of data protection challenges related to e-government such as re-use of data, data retention, rights of access, and technical solutions such as digital signatures and PET. Considering the large amount of data already being stored about citizens in Denmark, and the proposed mandatory one year data retention scheme (not yet in force), several interventions stated it is crucial that privacy safeguards are enforced and that citizens become more privacy conscious.

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 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'.

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."

According to a press article published on 15 April 2004 in the Belgian daily boulevard paper 'La Dernière Heure', the Ministry of the Interior in Belgium will test new telecom interception hardware and software on the fiberlink used by ADSL broadband users in Belgium. The test will be done by the CTIF (under the federal control of the ministry of interior) during a non determined period (starting Sunday 25 April) on the fiberlink in Brussels. The main purpose seems to test the viability of the technical solution.

This kind of wiretapping is quite different from regular phone (or internet) interception. Those wiretaps require identifying a specific caller line or identity. The Belgian 'black box' will monitor all the traffic transmitted on the fiberlink. If we take the analogy of 'classical' phone interception, it's like monitoring all the in/out phone traffic of an entire city in the hope to find a specific call.

On 28 July, Privacy International has presented the 6th annual UK Big Brother Awards ceremony. Privacy International took the unusual step of awarding a US initiative for the UK awards because of the almost total silence in the US over this programme. US VISIT will fingerprint all visitors to the US from September of this year. The scheme is offensive and invasive, and has been undertaken with little or no debate or scrutiny. Nor has the requirement taken any account of the 'special relationship' between the UK and the US. The UK government has been silent about the programme and has capitulated every step of the way.

Winner of 'Worst public servant' was Margaret Hodge, Minister of State for Children. According to the jury report, "Margaret Hodge has received numerous nominations because of her patronage of the controversial tracking provisions in the Children Bill and for her determination to develop a wide spectrum of intrusive databases and information systems.