Concerned over privacy incursions, citizens strike back

Fed up Germans took to the streets last Saturday (English), speaking out against the German government’s data retention policies at protests and rallies in over 30 different cities, including Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, and Hamburg.

The protest, the first in 2008 in a growing series of “Freedom Not Fear” rallies, reflects a rising pro-privacy and anti-surveillance sentiment stretching across Europe as citizens realize the extent of government monitoring in their personal lives. The rallies’ organizer, Stoppt Die Vorratsdatenspeicherung (German Working Group on Data Retention), says it is specifically targeting recent German legislation, passed January 2008, that allows government officials to store and recall detailed information on all phone and e-mail conversations for a period of six months.

Germany’s Telecoms Data Retention Act is the manifestation of a larger European Union directive dating back to 2006, which forced member countries to enact data retention legislation laws in order to enhance crime-fighting and terrorism investigations. The directive has met heavy resistance thus far, writes the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and rights groups in Ireland and Germany are slowing the process further with a handful of constitutional challenges against the directive’s many forms. Digital Rights Ireland’s challenge is set to be heard today, and the Working Group says it has another challenge pending.

While attendance figures are currently unknown, a similar rally taking place last September drew in over 25,000 people. Current reports indicate that over 2,500 showed up for the rally in Munich alone, and the Working Group said it has plans to “expand across Europe” for “an even larger protest on September 20th of this year.”

“Until 2007, telecommunications providers were permitted to retain only data required for billing purposes,” reads a Working Group summary, which goes on to point out that retention policies place heavy financial strains on businesses, violate basic privacy rights, and disrupts professional activities that rely on discretion, such as those in the fields of medicine, law, or journalism.

Curiously, German government officials are investigating private companies’ storage and use of private data. Criminal investigations are currently underway against the actions of Deutsche Telekom, for example, which recently rocked the country last month after the company admitted to spying on prominent company executives and journalists in order to root out leaks.