A report issued by the European Union has revealed that Maltese security forces’ requests to access private telecommunications data have spiked drastically in the last two years.
The figures are startling – in 2008, the police and security service made 869 requests to view personal traffic data, but in 2009, that figure skyrocketed to 4,023 requests.
Maltese law provides for the use of traffic data to be made available when the police or the security service are investigating “serious crime”. It must also be pointed out that the law enforcement agencies cannot view the contents of emails, text messages, or conversations under this law. To tap into conversations, the law enforcement agencies must be granted a warrant to do so by a member of the judiciary.
It was also noted in the report that Malta made far more requests in 2009 than other countries that are much larger – Cyprus, Denmark, Finland and Slovenia.
The European Commission has said that while there are no concrete examples of “serious breaches of privacy, the risk of data security breaches will remain unless further safeguards are put in place.” This statement was not made about Malta, but the concept of accessing data across the board on a European level.
We are accustomed to the term ‘Big Brother’. Many know that it sort of means that someone, somewhere is watching you. But most do not know the real nuances of the phrase. Its roots come from George Orwell’s novel 1984, in which he envisages a dystopia in the future. A dystopia where Big Brother is government, the army, the police force, the leader, the educator and more.
The concept is inspired by Stalin’s Soviet Union, but it brings in Orwell’s keen eye for the future. In the novel – which is more of a political commentary, disguised as a story – Big Brother can see you everywhere.
Television sets can spy on you, your every move is watched and absolutely everywhere is bugged; the aim is total control of the population. While we are in no way suggesting that this is the current state of affairs, we must be vigilant, and there must be stricter parameters within the law to safeguard against the use of personal data.
What exactly constitutes a “serious crime”? Is it murder, drug trafficking, people smuggling? Or can it also include an investigation into an assault where someone’s finger was broken? According to Maltese law, that is a serious crime by definition.
On the flipside, we must also note that citizens sometimes apply two weights and two measures. We cannot have public outcry about access to personal data when many people post all sorts of personal information on social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook.
But, then again, this information is put on public display voluntarily. No doubt, data monitoring by law enforcement agencies is a useful and essential tool and if used correctly in fighting crime, it is justifiable and perhaps even desirable. But in an ever changing world where civil discontent (even in Europe) could turn to civil unrest and perhaps even disorder, we would do well to correctly define, in terms of the law, where access to personal data can be used, in very concrete terms.