By Sarah Left, 10 May 1999 00:30
NEWS Privacy activists are outraged over a European Parliament resolution, voted in on Friday, which awards law enforcement agencies wide powers to listen in on voice and data communications. The resolution, dubbed Enfopol 98, means that police and security services will no longer need a warrant before tapping into emails, faxes and mobile phone calls. Currently Internet service providers (ISPs) and telcos must allow police access to networks only if presented with a court warrant. But Enfopol suggests that police should have permanent 'back door' access via a computer terminal. ISPs and telcos would be expected to foot the bill for the implementation. The resolution is not legally binding in member states, and the report's author, Gerhard Schmid, says it leaves the legal details of wiretapping to be decided by individual governments. The UK's Labour Party has confirmed that it supports the measure and has voted in favour of its approval. Simon Davies of campaign group, Privacy International, responded: "Enfopol is probably the worst example of non-democratic government. It removes any transparency and accountability to law enforcement and brings it one step closer to the sort of invisibility we see with national security." He continued: "For every increase in police powers there has to be equal increase in accountability, which will not happen if with this particular piece of legislation."
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