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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