[ILUG] Completely loo-lah law requiring retention of e-mail headers for 3 years

[Seán Mac Suibhne]

Ar Sath 19 Ean 2008 01:49, scríobh Cian Davis:
> Hi All,
> I had read a while ago that the EU Commision was considering a law
> that would require ISPs to keep logs of e-mail headers for 3 years. I
> dismissed it at the time as crazy due to the amount of e-mail (and
> therefore data storage) involved.
>
> I read now in the times that it will become law in a month
> (http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2008/0119/1200605160420.html)

As I understand it both email and web useage records will be retained! 

So come on lads and lassies, start sending your email in Irish! I know from 
personal expierience that the goverment depts are illiterate in Irish! Have 
you ever tried to buy a TV Licence or do any other bussiness speaking Irish? 

Support free speech by supporting the Irish language!
Support  Privacy by supporting the Irish language!

Start practicing you Irish! See
http://www.ionad.org and http://anclub.ie

Slan go fóill!

Seán Mac Suibhne


E-mail and chat data to be stored 'within a month'

Karlin Lillington

Records of e-mails and internet chat messages sent and received by Irish 
residents - and the times they log on and off the internet - will have to be 
stored for three years. The scheme will be implemented within a month.

The Irish Times has learned the Department of Justice intends to effect a 
controversial EU data retention directive affecting e-mail and web usage 
"within a month", according to a department spokeswoman.

Due to the short timescale, the department will need to use a statutory 
instrument rather than use primary legislation.

The content of messages will not be retained, but information specifying who 
sent and received all e-mail and chat messages, the date and time, and the 
size of the message would have to be retained.

Internet protocol addresses, which define individual users or computers on the 
net, will also be retained. The directive would likely affect individuals and 
small to medium businesses, and not private business networks used by large 
multinationals.

Industry observers and privacy advocates have argued the new EU directive is 
so vague that internet service providers remain uncertain of what information 
they need to retain, or how they are to retain and manage it.

Despite the short timetable for implementation, industry bodies had not been 
told yet that the Government planned to bring forward the statutory 
instrument.

Ireland received warning letters from the EU last month because it is now 
three months overdue to implement the directive.

Paul Durrant, director of the Internet Service Providers Association of 
Ireland (ISPAI), said: "The ISPAI is disappointed that such an all pervasive 
measure . . . should be enacted without being subjected to the full rigours 
of Dáil debate and the public exposure that brings."

Ireland will be among the first to bring the directive into force in Europe, 
despite the fact that it has also challenged it in the European Court of 
Justice.

The challenge does not relate to the substance of the directive, which the 
Government has championed in the EU, but the fact that it was introduced by 
vote of the larger EU members, a precedent that worries the State.

Privacy advocacy group Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) is challenging the 
existing call data laws in the High Court in a case that is expected to be 
referred to the European courts.

Edward McGarr, principal of McGarr Solicitors, who are representing DRI said: 
"At the very least the transposition of the directive should be by primary 
legislation and following a debate in the Oireachtas."
© 2008 The Irish Times