The working party on co-operation in criminal matters (Justice ministry officials) has issued a new questionnaire about data retention to all member states. Answers have to be given by 29 July 2004, the results will be debated in the next meeting of the working party on 27 and 28 September 2004. Clearly the Dutch presidency of the EU is pushing the proposal ahead from the UK, Ireland, France and Sweden to create a framework decision on data retention. This proposal was introduced on 28 April 2004, to store the internet and telephony communication data from all 450 million European citizens for a period of 12 to 36 months, for law enforcement purposes. In the proceedings of the meeting, the ministers promise "An explanatory note on the proposal from the four Member States will follow."

According to the proceedings "A number of concerns were raised by different delegations, including: The exact scope and aim of the instrument and the exact kind of data covered needed to be examined/clarified. (...) The draft Framework Decision also concerned prevention, which went further than mutual assistance in criminal matters. The parts of the text on prevention needed clarification. The minimum period for retention of traffic data needed further examination, and was too long in the view of some delegations."

The first Prepcom of the WSIS second phase took place from 24 to 26 June 2004 in Hammamet, Tunisia. The Prepcom started with major obstruction of civil society participation even before civil society could make their first intervention in the governmental plenary session.

On the second morning of the Prepcom, the Tunisian ambassador objected in advance to an intervention by Souhayr Belhassen, vice-president of the Tunisian Human Rights League. Belhassen was scheduled to address the governmental plenary on behalf of civil society. In her statement she emphasised that human rights, not least privacy and freedom of expression, should be fully respected during the Tunis phase of WSIS and in the host countries of the Summit. The ambassador, who claimed to speak on behalf of several civil society groups, objected to some of the content in the presentation and tried to remove her as a speaker.

The European Commission has funded a new project to make Digital Rights Management more acceptable to consumers. INDICARE (the Informed Dialogue about Consumer Acceptability of DRM Solutions in Europe) is distributing its first e-mail newsletter this week. The newsletter includes links to articles on the INDICARE website that are conceived as the starting point for online discussions. Under the E-Content programme 2003-2004 1 million euro is allocated for 'accompanying measures' like community building.

DRM-technology is seen by both the Commission and the (multi-)national entertainment industry as the best solution to control copyrights in a digital environment. Civil rights organisations, data protection authorities and consumer unions however are not very keen on giving complete control over their reading, listening and watching habits to industrial parties. Initiatives to integrate DRM in both hard- and software, like the TCPA initiative, have strongly been criticised for violating fundamental freedoms of computer and internet usage.

The French data protection authority CNIL has declared the new U.S. mail-service 'Did they read it?' illegal. Through this service, launched in May 2004 by Rampell Software, subscribers get a report about the exact time their e-mail was opened, for how long, on what kind of operating system and if the mail was forwarded to other people. To use this service, subscribers simply forward their mail to Rampell, after which a one-pixel gif is added that allows for this kind of tracking. Rampell carefully avoids explaining the technology, and just promises that e-mails are being kept confidential.

The CNIL finds the service unacceptable under the French privacy legislation of 1978. The recipients do not have a choice to accept or refuse sending this information to the sender and aren't even informed. Because the service provides detailed information on the reading behaviour, the data are considered sensitive, and the collection illegal.

On his last day as President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox finally decided to give in to the demands from the Legal Affairs committee and the majority of political group leaders. The European Parliament has now asked the European Court of Justice to annul the recently signed EU-U.S. agreement on transfer of airline Passenger Name Record (PNR) data to U.S. government agencies.

European Digital Rights has signed a resolution against the PNR-transfer from the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), a coalition of more than 60 consumer organisations in the U.S. and Europe. It calls upon the EU and U.S. governments to suspend the agreement until much stronger privacy safeguards are adopted. The letter was submitted to EU and U.S. government representatives at the EU-U.S. Summit in Dublin on 25 June 2004.

Reporters Without Borders have published their annual overview of government surveillance and censorship of the internet. The report exposes the crackdown on cyber-dissidents in routinely authoritarian regimes, such as China, but also pays a lot of attention to surveillance in traditionally democratic countries. "The report should not be seen as a kind of ranking of regimes by their repression of the internet, but more as an appeal for vigilance in countries where, as in democracies, it's still possible to expose abuses and flaws. And also an appeal for solidarity with those who are flagrantly deprived of freedom, such as the 70 or so cyber-dissidents currently in prison around the world".

Internet under surveillance 2004 (June 2004)
http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=433

The data protection commissioners of 14 of Germany's 15 states (Laender) as well as the National commissioner, Peter Schaar, have severely criticised the EU plan for mandatory traffic data retention and called upon the German government to vote against the proposal in the EU council of ministers. "There are good reasons why the national legislator has just denied to introduce mandatory data retention", the official data protectors declared: "The confidentiality of telecommunications, which is guaranteed under the German constitution, only allows for the storage of data on the use of public telecommunication networks - and in particular of the internet - in cases of tangible evidence of a severe crime."

Nevertheless, Germany's minister of Interior Affairs, Otto Schily, is known to be the driving force behind a new law to introduce mandatory data retention in Germany and to also put pressure on other EU states' governments to introduce similar measures.

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted for a year-long delay of demanding visa waiver countries to introduce biometric passports for their citizens.

The 2002 Border Security Act demands from 27 countries the inclusion of chips with facial images in their passports, in order to continue participation in the US visa waiver programme. A deadline was set for 26 October 2004 after which citizens from most EU countries would either have to present a biometric passport or a visa to enter the United States.

The U.S. government requested a delay of two years for this requirement as none of the countries would be able to introduce the biometric passports this fall. Without a delay the U.S. state department would be swamped with visa applications from all travellers from the EU.

The House of Representatives only agreed to an one-year extension until 26 October 2005. The US Senate will yet have to approve the delay.