A ruling by the European Court of Justice is reason for Minister of Justice and Security Grapperhaus to limit the retention obligation for telecommunications data. According to the minister, a balanced retention obligation for so-called user data of a telephone number or IP address is essential for the investigation and prosecution of serious crimes. In a growing number of cases, such as child pornography, cybercrime and online weapons trafficking, it is often crucial that the police and the Openbaar Ministerie Service (OM) are able to ascertain in retrospect which person used a telephone number or IP address found in a criminal investigation at a specific time.
So writes Minister Grapperhaus, also on behalf of the State Secretary of Economic Affairs and Climate, today in a letter to the Senate and House of Representatives in response to the ruling of the European Court of Justice December 21, 2016. Due to the ruling of the European Court of Justice, the pending bill Adaptation of the Obligation to Retain Telecommunication Data must be substantially amended according to Minister Grapperhaus. Therefore, he announces a bill of amendment to limit the obligation for providers of public telecommunications services to keeping so-called user data available. This will only make it possible for investigative services and prosecutors to trace IP addresses and telephone numbers back to a user. These data do not provide insight into contacts and relationships between users.
The ability to retrospectively trace a user of a telecommunications service at a particular time is particularly important in the case of crimes involving the use of the Internet, where the IP address is the only trace for detection. These include cyber crimes, including ransomware, ddos attacks and banking malware, as well as child pornography and grooming. Furthermore, classic crimes also increasingly have a digital component, such as fraud on the Internet and large-scale online trade in weapons and illegal goods via the dark web. But also serious threats and online abuse of sexual images, as in so-called revenge porn.
With advancing digitalization, the urgency of the availability of telephony and Internet user data for investigation is only increasing. For example, the Public Prosecution Service indicated that foreign investigative agencies in an international investigation into child abuse had succeeded in tracing very many IP addresses of users, possibly including a large number of Dutch citizens. However, none of these cases could be taken up because the only leads to determine whether, and to what extent, Dutch citizens were involved, namely the IP addresses, were no longer available.
Society expects the government to act against serious norm violations and to protect victims. Effective possibilities to identify the user of a communication service are necessary to prevent the Internet from becoming a sanctuary for the perpetrators of serious crimes. By restricting the retention of telecommunications data, Minister Grapperhaus wants to prevent the fundamental rights of citizens, in particular the right to protection of privacy, from being affected in a way that could cast doubt on their legitimacy.
Letter from House of Representatives Dataretention
