Norway gets data retention

[Andreas Tolf Tolfsen]

Today it was announced that the Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) and the
Conservative Party (Høyre) partnered in getting the legislation
concerning the EUs Data Retention Directive passed in Norwegian
parliament (Stortinget).

Translated URL from a big newspaper here:

  <http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=no&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vg.no%2Fnyheter%2Finnenriks%2Fnorsk-politikk%2Fartikkel.php%3Fartid%3D10099681&act=url>

In this context “DLD” means “data retention directive”.  “Ap” is the
Labour Party.  “PST” means the Secret State Police in Norway.  “ICT” is
an organization for telecom operators.

Some highlights:

> Erna Solberg do not think it's a letdown when the Conservatives for
> once was able to pass on a suggestion from the Labour Party, they
> would rather go into partnership with them. 
>
> - No, this is a huge victory for the Conservatives, and we have
> received approval for a lot.  Moreover, the data will be stored
> securely so that it will not be possible to hackers in the data, said
> the Conservative leader.

Some concrete facts:

> * The general rule is that there should be a minimum four year
>   sentence for using the data, but five years for location data.  But
>   there are some exceptions, including for drug crimes.  It means that
>   in theory the sale of cannabis lead to use of stored traffic data. 
>
> Anne Marie Bjørnflaten of Labor states that it should be "necessity
> and proportionality" that the court may disclose the data. 
>
> * PST will still be able to get data in preventive work, without
>   anything concrete.

Also:

> * There need be no suspicion against a specific person to collect your
>   telecommunications and internet data.  It holds that you are near.
>   This meant the police have been important, for example, investigate
>   the murder cases without a suspect. 
>
> * Private could theoretically gain access on strict criteria to use in
>   a civil trial.

19.000 people had signed the petition against the directive (a sizable
number of people considering our country's size).  This was however not
enough to convince politicians to stop the directive.  Government
partner parties of the Labour Party; the Socialistic Left Party and
Centre Party disagrees and will vote against the implementation of the
EU directive (that is, for a veto), but the Labour and Conservative
Parties have the majority combined.  This is, indeed, a very odd
constellation.

This is a sad day for privacy in Norway.  When it is implemented, I
would recommend using encryption and routing when using the internet in
Norway.