In a blow to freedom and privacy, the Dutch have passed a law requiring ISPs and telco’s te retain all kinds of personal data about a person’s online and telecomunications transactions for the period of at least 12 months, despite not having been able to prove that this helps at all against terrorism (which is why the law was enacted in the first place)..

In a dangerous judgment for British bloggers and whistleblowers, a British court has ruled (absurdly) that because blogging itself is a public activity, bloggers have ‘no reasonable expectation of privacy’ regarding their identities, and newspapers are allowed to publish their identities if they can find them by fair or foul means. A British police detective who recently won the Orwell Prize for his excellent political writing used his blog to write highly critical accounts of police activities and unethical behavior, making very powerful enemies in the process. A well-funded newspaper with powerful connections quickly heard of his blog and decided it was absolutely vital to expose his identity using an investigative journalist. Like any good newspaper, the blogger anonymized the people and the locations in all the cases he discussed on his blog, but the newspaper alleges these were not sufficiently anonymized and complains that they could work out the identities, though British newspapers don’t complain that they are allowed to publish the identities of men who are falsely accused of rape and cleared in court. The newspaper also helpfully contacted the blogger’s employer, and his job is now threatened.

via Slashdot Your Rights Online Story | British Court Rules Against Blogger Anonymity.