ISP Wants European Commission To Take Action Against Sweden For Refusing To Halt Data Retention

Privacy

from the good-luck-with-that dept

Mon, Sep 22nd 2014 3:48am — Glyn Moody

Back in April, Mike wrote about the decision of the Swedish ISP Bahnhof to delete all user log files in the wake of the judgment from the EU Court of Justice that the present EU data retention requirements are "invalid". According to an article in Computerworld UK, Bahnhof did this with the permission of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS), which agreed that the Swedish law implementing data retention was problematic. However:

in mid-August the PTS ordered Bahnhof to start retaining data again, Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung said. The PTS has made a 180-degree turn in policy by ordering Bahnhof -- and Tele2, which also stopped retaining data for a while -- to resume doing so.

According to a PTS spokesman, it was the government that ordered the PTS to start enforcing the Swedish data retention law again. "They appointed a commissioner to investigate if the Swedish national legislation could still be applied" despite the CJEU's ruling, he said. The commissioner came to the conclusion that the national legislation stands, and from that point on, the PTS has been enforcing the law again, he said.

Bahnhof is not only fighting this reversal of policy in the Swedish courts, but also calling on the European Union to take action against the Swedish government for its refusal to halt data retention: Bahnhof, the renowned Swedish network operator and internet carrier joins forces with 5th of July Foundation to urge the EU Commission to initiate proceedings against the Kingdom of Sweden for blatantly ignoring the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union on April 8, 2014, which declared the Data Retention Directive invalid. Sweden now fails to fulfil its obligations according to The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, articles 7 and 8, ‘Respect for private and family life’ and ‘Protection of personal data’.
It's rather a long shot, since the European Commission has given no indication it wants to get rid of data retention, and so is unlikely to help Bahnhof in its battle with the Swedish authorities. Still, it's nice change to have an ISP willing to stand up for its users time and again, as Bahnhof has done; long may it continue to do so.

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Filed Under: data retention, eu court of justice, europe, sweden
Companies: banhof

12 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 22 Sep 2014 @ 3:58am

Long may it continue to do so

Amen
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Sep 2014 @ 4:18am

Sweden isn't the only country that has ignored the EU ruling on data retention. the UK has done the same and if i remember correctly, is being taken to the EU court. however, i wouldn't mind betting a dollar that even if the courts vote to enforce the ruling, countries will still carry on collecting and sorting through the data simply because all governments now seem to think it is their right to know what all citizens, everywhere are doing, while at the same time keeping as much information on as many things as possible away from the citizens, the majority of which aid corporations! in other words, the planet is facing a take-over like it has never seen before an if it succeeds, we will all be run by massive corporations, with absolutely no rights at all. we are on the way to this end and it is being aided even now by turning countries into ones that are Police and Authoritarian run!
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Sep 2014 @ 4:46am

Okay, now some SWEDES want to try to do sane things? I know they are our favorite enemies and all, but someone THERE want to not hurt their customers?

Kids, prohibit your politicans to visit US embassy on your country and then we can fix this shit you created.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Sep 2014 @ 5:39am

funding
Sounds like an "unfunded mandate."
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Sep 2014 @ 5:39am

I heard Sweden wants to become the sixth eye.
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Hephaestus (profile), 22 Sep 2014 @ 6:22am

Re:
It is highly unlikely that corporations will take over. Short and long term, most technology is headed away from having central authorities and middlemen, information, banking, energy, water, food, manufacturing are just a few on a very long list. On top of that, deflationary economic pressure, from falling energy prices and manufacturing costs, pretty much wreck governmental central authorities over the next 20-25 years as their tax revenues dry up.
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Whatever (profile), 22 Sep 2014 @ 7:45am

Re:
This is in the end one of those issues which is likely to split the EU. It goes to the very nature of the state and it's ability to decide how it deals with it's citizens and their privacy. The EU is effectively a one way ratchet up system of more and more privacy to the point of nearly making it illegal for the cops to even observe on the street and take notes.

The right to forget is just a wonderful example of this insane move to a level of privacy that could only be obtained by actually removing part of people's memory.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Sep 2014 @ 8:04am

Re:
In the UK they passed a law ( Data Retention and Investigatory Powers or DRIP) that is basically a band-aid that keeps the old law legal until the new directive from the EU is finalized. Oh and as expected expands the invalidated laws reach.
Can't find the status of the different reported challenges to it. There were at least 3 different groups going to court over it.
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John Fenderson (profile), 22 Sep 2014 @ 2:11pm

Re: Re:
"It is highly unlikely that corporations will take over."

We used to say that here in the US, until the corporations took over.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Sep 2014 @ 5:38pm

Re: Re:
And we all know you'd rather it was illegal for the citizens to observe cops and take notes.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Oct 2014 @ 6:44am

Re: Re:
Not necessarily - the Data Retention Directive came after the Date Protection Directive, and was seen by most pro-privacy advocates as a retrograde step.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Oct 2014 @ 6:45am

Re: funding
Yep, that's why the Australian ISPs have been fighting this sort of policy.
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