FC: Council of Europe treaty may not include privacy protections

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40576,00.html

    Privacy a Likely Loser in Treaty
    by Declan McCullagh and Nicholas Morehead
    3:20 p.m. Dec. 7, 2000 PST

    WASHINGTON -- A controversial cybercrime treaty supported by the
    Clinton administration likely will not be amended to include privacy
    protections, a key European official said on Thursday.

    "We cannot find an acceptable international standard in terms of
    privacy as it applies to this treaty," said Henrik Kaspersen of the
    Council of Europe, which expects to finalize the document this month.

    "We don't want to exclude privacy. We very much want to include it,"
    said Kaspersen, chairman of the council's committee of cybercrime
    experts. "But there are a number of existing case laws dealing with
    privacy throughout Europe, and we're also dealing with countries like
    the United States and Japan that have differing legal systems."

    The treaty, which is being circulated among more than 40 nations, is
    designed to aid police investigations by requiring websites and
    Internet service providers to collect and record information about
    their users, a move privacy groups insist goes too far. It could also
    make it illegal to distribute some kinds of security products used by
    system administrators to secure their networks against intruders.

    Kaspersen's remarks came at an event highlighting the release of a
    report by McConnell International, a Washington policy consultancy
    founded by Bruce McConnell, a White House aide under Presidents George
    Bush and Bill Clinton.

    [...]




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