Telecommunications (Retention of Traffic Data) Bill

The Saint

I have written a letter (e-mail) of protest to the minister for justice expressing my concernes. They have replied but not surprisingly most of it was waffle. I urge people to bombard the minister with e-mails until he will have to recognise the total opposition to this proposed bill. Below is the e-mail address to send your letters and a copy of the reply that they sent me. Please send this address to all of your friend, collegues and family and urge them to write a brief letter of protest.

minister@justice.ie

Dear Mr........

I am directed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Michael
McDowell, T.D., to refer to your recent e-mail concerning the proposed
Telecommunications (Retention of Traffic Data) Bill.

This Bill is at an early stage of preparation and, of course, consultations will
take place with all interested parties before any proposals are finalised. Up
to recently, licensed operators retained information concerning the use made of
telecommunication services for, inter alia, the purpose of the prevention or
detection of crime, for the purpose of criminal proceedings or in the interests
of the security of the State. Disclosure of the information could only be made
to the Garda Síochána on written request by a member not below the rank of Chief
Superintendent. Heretofore, the information was retained for up to 6 years.
However, as a result of Directive 97/66/EC of the European Parliament and
Council concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy
in the telecommunications sector, the Minister for Public Enterprise issued
Directions as a temporary measure last April, under the Postal and
Telecommunications Services Act 1983 which provided for the retention of
information (traffic data) for up to 3 years for the same purposes.

The purpose of the legislation now being prepared is to identify a means of
placing on a permanent statutory basis, with any necessary safeguards, those
temporary measures which are currently in operation.

Yours sincerely


Dermot Woods
Private Secretary

Typedef

Interesting.

I sent this email to the Minister.

To whom it may concern.

I must say that the current plans for the Data Retention Bill are in fact
contrary to the claims by the Minister for Justice, actually Orwellian.
This State is proposing to catalog the transaction of every piece of
telecommunication pertaining to the public for some amorphous and etheral
'potential' threat.
What any oxymoron of logic that is. Why should I as a citizen have the State
snoop my communication activities? I have commited no Crime and do not pose
a danger to the public at large, yet still this State proposes to catalog my
activities as if I were a criminal.

I do not accept the argument that an innocent person has nothing to hide,
privacy and the right to live a lawful and if one wishes obscure life in
this State is compromised by this piece of legislation.
I do not accept the argument that a Garda is the appropiate person to decide
whether or not information pertaining to what may be very private matters is
to be made accessable during detection or prevention of crime.
I am shocked that the civil rights that Ireland has fought so hard for, can
so easily be abrogated by those who consider themselves duly qualified in
the matter. There was no mention of this impending bill that gives the State
rights to snoop inter-personal telecommunications in the election manifesto
of the pertinent parties of power, therefore I feel this ammendum is a
dishonest post-electoral nightmare, precipitated by international paranoia
vis-a-vis 'terrorism' and that this new data retention Bill is a draconian
and quasi-authoritarian piece of legislation and unless the Minister or the
Department can offer sufficient recompense to defend it's merits, I will be
pushing for formation of an action group to resist enunciation of this bill
through the houses of the Dial.

Regards
Brian O'Donoghue

I doubt very much if I will get a reply.

The Saint

It took a few days to get a reply. I reckon people should bombard them with letter of objection so that they actually get the message.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Typedef

Dear Mr. O'Donoghue

I am directed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Michael
McDowell, T.D., to refer to your recent e-mail concerning the proposed
Telecommunications (Retention of Traffic Data) Bill.

Section 98 of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983, as amended,
provides for the disclosure of information concerning the use made of
telecommunications services for the purpose of the prevention or detection of
crime or in the interests of the security of the State. Such information was
held by licensed operators for a period of six years or so for billing purposes.

The implementation of Directive 97/66/EC of the European Parliament and Council
concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the
telecommunications sector provides for the erasure of certain telecommunications
data. This provision may be restricted to safeguard certain objectives, such as
national security, public security and the prevention, investigation, detection
and prosecution of criminal offences.

Earlier this year, the Government decided that legislation should be drafted
requiring licensed operators to retain information concerning the use made of
telecommunications services provided by them for a period of three years. As a
interim measure the Government also decided that the Minister of Public
Enterprise should issue Directions under Section 110(1) of the Postal and
Telecommunications Services Act 1983, as amended, requiring such retention.

The legislation mentioned above is currently being prepared in this Department
in order to place on a permanent statutory basis, with any necessary
safeguards, those temporary measures which are currently in operation.

Yours sincerely


Ursula Dunne
Criminal Law Reform Division
Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
72/76 St. Stephens Green
Dublin 2




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DiscoStu

LOL

The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is
addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review,
retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance
upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is
prohibited.

Typedef

Hmm, I doubt it is legal to try and prevent me from sharing converse I have had with an elected representative somehow.

That message is probably only included to stop people from snooping the email, ironically enough.