Media campaign against connection data storage (12/12/06 6:43 pm)
The Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung (German association against connection data storage) calls German citizens again for taking actions to call attention to the connection data storage. "Although this directive questions the basics of our free society the citizens' information medium, the mass media, largely fail so far.", says the jurist Patrick Breyer of the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung. "Most people don't know that most of their private life shall be traceable from fall 2007 onwards."
In order to change this the Arbeitskreis is setting up a web demonstration on the 14th of December 2006. It offers a javascript (code is located at bottom of the website) webmasters can add to their website. On the 14th of December 2005 the directive for connection data storage was decided in the European Parliament, thus the 14th of December 2006 is the first day of death of the secrecy of telecommunications.
In addition, the Arbeitskreis calls German citizens for demanding a reporting from their newspaper, favorite magazine or tv broadcasting about this "first day of death" on the 14th of December. It offers a prototype letter on its website for contacting the media.
Comment:
Again the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung proves fighting spirit. However, this time the goal is not a juristic one but moreover enlightenment of the public. This appears to be reasonable and necessary. As we reported in our first article 47% of the participants refuse the connection data storage. Considering the unacceptable consequences everyone will have to face by this directive one can expect the remaining 53% of the participants have insufficient or no knowledge of the connection data storage.
Therefore actions such as this one are urgently required so a public discussion can develop for this directive and citizens become aware of surveillance which increases more and more - not only for connection data.