Big Brother is Watching, Listening – Government Petitions for Continuation of Mass Surveillance

Prague, Feb 14 (CTK) – The Czech government will advocate the current legislation allowing wholesale communications wiretapping at the Constitutional Court (US) as it approved the relevant proposal, raised by the Justice Ministry, that it should enter the procedure as a participant, today.

 

The legislation was disputed at the US by the Pirates.

 

The Pirates’ objection, sent to the US, has been signed by 60 members of the Chamber of Deputies from six parties.

 

The collection of the data on whom people call and when they are attached to the Internet do not have any major impact on investigation into crime and the practice is often in conflict with earlier rulings meted out by the US and the European Court of Justice, the petitioners said.

 

Thanks to the current legislation, it is possible to store the data on the phone numbers called by people and to which they send e-mails and text reports, on how long the conversations last and from which device they are attached to the Internet. This can be described as wholesale wiretapping, the Pirates said.

 

Two years ago, the police asked for the stored data in almost half a million cases, but their use has not brought about any fall in crime or increase in the clear-up rate, they added.