Secret Irish Data Repository Uncovered

[Woodrow]

Wow, I wonder how the "Irish Thug" feels about this? the Irish Justice Ministry revealed that for nearly a year, the Irish government has mandated all telecommunications operators store traffic information from every landline, fax and mobile phone call for at least three years.

http://www.topgold.com/blog/2003/02/25.html#a1888

"Karlin Lillington -- After attending a briefing on Ireland's proposed data retention legislation, Karlin discovered Ireland has had a secret data retention regime for almost a year. This comes on the heel of the Cabinet confidentially instructing telecommunications operators to store traffic information about every phone, fax and mobile call for at least three years.

Data Protection Commissioner Mr Joe Meade revealed that former Minister for Public Enterprise Ms O’Rourke issued secret directions for data detention in April 2002 when a dispute arose between the operators and his office over how long they should hold such data. There is no way that a citizen can get records of Cabinet discussions until at least five years following their conclusion.

What is most disturbing is that the Irish Cabinet simply imposed a mandatory data retention scheme and told the telecoms operators to say nothing about it.

As Karlin notes,

"We've had the only data retention scheme in Europe, perhaps in the western world, as far as I can tell. Why could this not have been told to phone users? That's a good question for the Taoiseach, and for our supposedly pro-business Tanaiste (deputy Prime minister), and for the previous Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, who was in office at the time.

"The consumer and business internet/phone user, will pay for whatever costs the telecoms/internet industry has to shoulder because of a data retention scheme. EsatBT estimated the cost of retaining and storing and managing the internet/email oriented data traffic that is handled by one of their server clusters at €34m for four years, and they have 7 to 8 such clusters."


And people were complaing about the Civil Liberties in the United States