CYBERCRIME AND THE PROTECTION OF PRIVACY.

PositionGovernment Activity

The work currently being conducted by various expert groups within the Council of Ministers on cybercrime and on the protection of personal data has given rise to reactions by several European organisations which condemn the pressures exerted by the lobby of police forces to generalise the preservation of data on electronic communications traffic. On the one hand, the Directive on the protection of personal data in the field of telecommunications provides for guarantees to protect the fundamental right of privacy of individuals. It makes intercepts illegal, in the absence of authorisation provided by the law in specific and justified cases. In particular, it obliges telecommunications operators to destroy traffic data. The text is expected to be replaced soon by a new "technologically neutral" Directive more suited to the technological evolution of the Internet. What was to be a mere updating of terminology may give rise to deeper changes, the heart of the matter being the period for the preservation of communications traffic data. At the same time, there are other discussions...

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