Data Bill website open to public

A website has been established by the Minister for Justice as part of a consultation process about the controversial Data Retention Bill.

Under the proposed legislation, telecommunications operators will be required to store "traffic" information about landline calls, mobile calls, faxes, customer e-mails and Internet activities for three years.

Mr McDowell, in a message on the new website, said the information would be "retained by the industry and accessed in the necessary fight against crime".

Civil liberties and human rights groups have sharply criticised the Bill because of its potential impact on current privacy guarantees.

The Minister said, however, that the Bill "is not about setting up some sort of massive database logging every citizen's communications nor is it about Big Brother listening in on your telephone calls or looking over your shoulder at your e-mails".

It would "not lead to automated surveillance of telecommunications". They were "talking about data such as numbers called, time and duration of calls and location of the communications device at a particular time".

Law-abiding citizens would have nothing to fear from the retention of certain information related to landline telephones, mobile phones and Internet traffic, when it was being retained "solely for the purposes of detecting or preventing criminal acts, such as the awful atrocity of Omagh", Mr McDowell said.

The site is accessible from the Department's own website www.justice.ie by clicking on the link "Consultation on Data Retention". Comments can be sent to dataretention@justqp.justice.ie by e-mail.