Be seeing E.U.: Europe eyes mobile records.

• Author: Sanchez, Julian
• Position: Citings - Brief Article

In the wake of last summer's bombings in London, British authorities are pushing for European Union-wide rules requiring mobile phone companies and Internet service providers to keep records of information about each call, text message, email, and Internet log-in to pass through their systems.

Though conversations and e-mails themselves would not be stored under the proposal, data about communications, such as the time of a cell phone call and the identifies and physical locations of the participants, would be kept by telecom firms under uniform rules. British Home Secretary Charles Clarke is confident that, despite early objections, member states will come to an agreement.

"Cosily, unlawful, intrusive, clumsy, inefficient, and technically infeasible," reacts Simon Davies, the director of Privacy International. "We've seen no evidence," he says, "that [the proposed] retention is necessary, and...