Irish e-mail falls within surveillance bill loophole
By Adrian Weckler
A loophole in the government’s telecoms surveillance bill will result in the majority of Irish e-mail accounts falling outside its provisions, according to industry experts.
The Retention of Data Bill, published by the Minister for Justice to combat serious criminal offences, compels internet and telephone operators to retain customer data on calls, texts and e-mails for up to two years.
But users of popular web-based e-mail services such as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail will escape the effects of the new law. The bill’s provisions will also not affect communications over social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and Twitter.
Industry estimates put the number of Irish web e-mail users at more than two million, while 1.5million Irish people hold Bebo and Facebook accounts.
Data on these services will not be retrievable without the cooperation of companies such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook.
A spokeswoman for Yahoo, which is based outside the state, said that its company’s customer privacy rules did not allow it to share data with outside organisations.
Users of popular internet telephony services, such as Skype, may also escape the effects of the Data Retention Bill.
