Irish Government threatened by Data Protection Commissioner

The question of data retention is a delicate one and is being debated throughout Europe. Law enforcement and anti-terrorist agencies are keen to access data retained by telecoms companies and ISPs to help identify and track suspects. But civil liberties groups fear that such access erodes privacy rights too far.

The data could include details of all the phone numbers you call, the geographic location of your mobile calls, the e-mail addresses you communicate with and the web sites visit.

According to the Irish Times, the Commissioner's concern stems from a Direction issued secretly in April last year, and described in a statement by the Commissioner as "requiring telcos to retain detailed non-anonymous traffic data for a three-year period, for the purpose of facilitating requests from An Garda Síochána [the national police force] and from the Defence Forces".

The Commissioner commented: "This measure was intended to be a temporary 'holding measure' pending the introduction of substantive legislation to this effect." It was designed to stop the existing practice by telcos of retaining the data for a period of six years.

According to the Irish Times, Mr Meade was then made aware that the Direction was actually in breach of the EU Constitution, lacked "the character of law" and was "in breach of the principles of Community law".

The article states that the Commissioner warned in the autumn, and then again in December, that he would take court action because the government was dragging its feet over bringing in the promised legislation to legitimise the data retention. As yet, however, no action has been taken.

The long-awaited Bill is actually expected this session, authorising retention of call data, e-mail data and details of web pages visited for a three-year period. Civil liberties groups are lobbying hard against it.