Surveillance. The European Parliament passed a controversial measure Thursday 30. May 2002 that would allow countries to force telecommunication companies to keep detailed records of customers’ data for snooping purposes. The Parliament passed the Communications Data Protection Directive, 351 to 133, despite an aggressive campaign by civil liberties groups who say the measure would enable police to spy on citizens.

From Declan McCullaghs’ Politechbot:

Politech archive on data retention:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=retention

News coverage of the vote:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52882,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,725204,00.html

The official report:
http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/OM-Europarl?PROG=PRESS-DAILYNB&L=EN&PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+PRESS-DAILYNB+DN-20020530-1+0+DOC+SGML+V0//EN&LEVEL=1&REFERER=X&NAV=X#SECTION4