Law to force storage of text messages

AN EU data retention directive means that mobile phone operators will soon be obliged to store message contents for between six months and two years.

Privacy campaigners have expressed concern about these imminent “big brother” laws which will mean that every text message you write could be stored by mobile phone companies for up to two years.

Mobile phone information and email records have joined CCTV as effective tools in crime detection.

Up to now, regulations only required the retention of the mobile numbers of the origin and destination of such messaging, rather than the contents.

Ireland is already more stringent than other EU countries when it comes to the retention of mobile phone data. Instead of the two-year period recommended by the EU, Ireland opted for three years’ storage for the origin and destination of mobile calls.

Much attention focused on the retention of such data during the recent Joe O’Reilly murder trial, when the pinpointing of his mobile phone proved crucial to the garda case.

Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) is challenging Ireland’s decision to force the retention of mobile records for three years, and is opposed to the storage of text message contents.

“It’s not that we would be anti-data retention, but we would be in favour of specific targeting of data, in specific cases,” said DRI spokesman Bernard Tyers yesterday. “There also needs to be accounting of these requests for data.”

DRI is also opposing Minister of State Pat Carey’s proposal for the registration of all pre-paid mobile phones. “If the Pat Carey legislation is passed, then they’re saying that anybody who registers a pre-paid mobile phone is possibly a drug dealer,” said Mr Tyers.

A spokesman for the Data Protection Commissioner said that three years is “too long” for the retention of mobile information, adding that there was no requirement for a serious crime to have been committed before a person’s phone records could be examined.

“We respect the job of the law enforcement authority in terms of investigating serious crimes, but with the current rules, a chief superintendent might get information on my mobile phone on the basis that I ran a stop sign on my bike. There’s no ‘serious crime’ clause in it.”