“Retention of Data Bill is an unbelieveable farce”

They’re not our words (though we’d agree) but those of Adrian Weckler writing in the Sunday Business Post. Here’s an excerpt: Unbelievable. That is the only word to describe the loophole that the new Retention of Data bill has created. For those who missed it, …

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More thoughts on the Data Retention Bill

Daithi MacSithigh has put together a summary of problems with the Bill – cross posted here with his permission: The Minister for Justice in Ireland published the Communications (Retention of Data) Bill last week: it was made available on the Oireachtas website (and brought to …

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Thoughts on the new Data Retention Bill

The Communications (Retention of Data) Bill 2009, published last week, has caused a bit of a stir in this morning’s newspapers. It will give effect to EU Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC of 15 March 2006 (blogged here) which recently survived challenge by the Irish Government …

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“If you’ve nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear”

Speaking on the Last Word with Matt Cooper earlier today FF TD Niall Collins trotted out that old canard – “if you’ve nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear” – in relation to the new data retention bill. Curiously, when asked if he’d be happy …

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Why Ireland needs a data breach warning law

This piece appeared in the Sunday Business Post recently summarising why we think it’s time you had a right to be told if your personal information is lost or stolen. Here’s an excerpt: In the last year alone, multiple cases have come to light: notably …

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Data Retention Bill to be published today

Several Irish sources are reporting (Irish Times | Examiner) that the Data Retention Bill will be published today and will seek to establish a two year retention period for phone records, with one year for email and internet traffic. More details as they emerge. Oops …

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Another day, another laptop loss

Yesterday it was a HSE laptop with sensitive financial information on the public. (Don’t forget the HSE has form – with multiple data losses just last year – and has now shown that it has broken its promise to encrypt all laptops containing sensitive personal …

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Complaint to European Commission over Irish Interception Laws

You might have noticed that we think that Irish data retention laws are an invasion of our privacy. Unfortunately Irish law on interception of communications also fails to protect our privacy – and for that reason we’ve lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission, …

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German court rules that data retention “violates fundamental right to privacy”

Good news from our friends in the German Working Group against Data Retention: As the first German court, the Administrative Court of Wiesbaden has found the blanket recording of the entire population’s telephone, mobile phone, e-mail and Internet usage (known as data retention) disproportionate. The …

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Music industry pushing for internet filtering as well as “three strikes” – what can you do about it?

Looks like we got it wrong. When we wrote about the deal between Eircom and the music industry we believed (as the early reports seemed to say) that it only involved a “three strikes” system and that the daft notion of internet filtering was off …

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Department of Justice continues tradition of secrecy on data retention

You might have noticed Karlin Lillington’s story in the Irish Times today about the Department of Justice’s new proposals on data retention. To make a long story short, it turns out that the Attorney General was not impressed with its remarkable plans to change the …

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European Court upholds data retention… for the time being

The European Court of Justice has given its decision today in the Irish Government challenge to the Data Retention Directive – Ireland v. Parliament and Council (Press Release | Judgment). Unsurprisingly (in light of the Advocate General’s Opinion) it has held that the directive was …

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