Does the EU want ISPs to retain all search history? Search me!

Stuart Corner
Monday, 28 June 2010 18:27

Opinion and Analysis

Like Australia, the European Union appears to be proposing that data on all Internet searches be retained for possible scrutiny by authorities. The EU appears to be claiming otherwise, but its communications on the matter are pathetic.

Ixquick along with its English language subsidiary Startpage claims to operate "the world's most private search engine" and to have built "a strong privacy reputation by storing no search data on its users" and by using proxies to enable users to search anonymously.

It issued a press release today warning that the EU had adopted "A draconian proposal to retain all Internet search traffic'¦framed as a measure to crack down on paedophiles'¦and calling on the EU to require that search engines store all search traffic for up to two years for possible analysis by authorities."

The 'draconian proposal', official title 'Written Declaration 29' is scant on detail in the extreme. In essence it "Calls on the Council and the Commission to act on Communication COM(2007)0267 [and] asks the Council and the Commission to implement Directive 2006/24/EC and extend it to search engines in order to tackle online child pornography and sex offending rapidly and effectively."

COM(2007)0267 "Towards a general policy on the fight against cyber crime"  is a general policy statement on fighting cyber crime. Directive 2006/24/EC requires member states to ensure that service providers retain information needed to identify parties to fixed line, mobile and Internet telephony, and email, communications, but specifically excludes retention of "any data revealing the content of the communication."

So it's a moot point as to how this could be extended to searches without breaching this restriction.

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