Campaigning material

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The German federal government has presented plans for a telecommunications data retention, a scheme for storing data about each and every telephony or internet connection. Data is to be retained of the whole population, not just of criminal suspects.

In the name of fighting terror and serious crime, it will be made possible to trace who has been in contact with whom by telephone, mobile phone or email. In the case of mobile phones, the whereabouts of both the caller and the receiver of the call will also be known. Internet usage shall be traceable from 2008.

Telecommunications data retention

• violates the human right of privacy.
• is in conflict with article 10 of the German constitution (Fernmeldegeheimnis).
• impairs professional activities that require confidentiality, e.g. for doctors, priests, lawyers or journalists.
• violates the fundamental principle of the presumption of innocence.
• is easily circumvented by criminals.
• is expensive and puts a burden on industry and consumers.

"I am afraid of terrorist attacks. Does the government not have the duty to protect me?"

It is one of the duties of our government to implement security measures that protect us from threats such as crime and terrorism. However, security must not be pursued for its own sake. Security measures serve to protect the constitutional liberties of our democratic state.

Treating more than 80 million German citizens as criminal suspects and recording their communication behaviour, does not serve to protect our consitutional rights -- it undermines them.

Telecommunications data retention opens the door to a surveillance state. At first, the data was to be used only for the prosecution of serious crimes. Now, the secret services and even the music industry will be allowed access to the data. Many other parties are just waiting to gain access to the data. Even people that have nothing to hide must be afraid of misuse of their private data, of mistakes in the data analysis and of the distress caused by being wrongly accused of a serious crime.

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." --- Benjamin Franklin

"It is an obviously disproportionate intervention in our civil liberties, to record the communication and movement habits of the whole population, in order to raise the detection rate by a microscopic 0.0006%." --- Patrick Breyer, Lawyer

"Miss Zypries wants data about our telephone calls, movements and internet access, to be collected as a precaution, in case we become criminals." --- Ralf Bendrath, Political Scientist

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IN ARBEIT