Europe Moves To Track Phone and Net Use

An anonymous reader writes with a NYTimes piece on the early moves by European governments to implement an EU data retention directive. The governments of Germany and the Netherlands are initially proposing much more stringent programs than the EU directive requires. For example, the German proposal "would essentially prohibit using false information to create an e-mail account, making the standard Internet practice of creating accounts with pseudonyms illegal." The Times notes that, early days as it is, nevertheless some people involved in the issue are "concerned about a shift in policy in Europe, which has long been a defender of individuals' privacy rights."

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[account_deleted]

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Re:Great...

[GFree]

From article post to first comment - Godwin's Law invoked in 3 minutes. Is that a record here?

Re:Great...

[Lord Dreamshaper]

not even close. you must be new here...

Re:That'll be real popular around here...

[Itninja]

So I guess those of use with very common names are just screwed then. Or I suppose I could get my name leagally changed to john_smith_no_not_that_one_the_other_one....