Declan, These articles (unfortunately in German) are excellent examples of the true purpose of EU-style "Privacy Commissioners". Their purpose of course being to provide a whitewash to privacy violating activities by the government.
Anyone want to translate 'em?
Here's a very quick translation. I loved that bit where AltaVista translated "crackle" as "kneeling asterisk", anyway I hope this is more readable than those miracles of machine translation. SonntagsZeitung Online, July 12, 1998: The movement profiles do exist A confidential report by the data protection commissioner unveils: Swisscom collects the complete Natel cell phone data every three hours BY NIKLAUS RAMSEYER AND DENIS VON BURG BERNE - a secret report by data protection commissioner Odilo Guntern proves: Swisscom locates all powered-on Natel phones in Switzerland with an accuracy of 100 meters every three hours and stores these data for seven days. Things are not as bad as all that, it's all legal, and there's no problem whatsoever, the Swiss federal data protection commissioner Odilo Guntern appeased the public last Monday. Swisscom AG apparantly has "the possibility of locating every powered-on Natel at any time", he admitted. That however only within the so-called Location Areas comprising of 50 kilometers each - and certainly not down to the 2,500 a few kilometers small radio cells in the country "as claimed by the SonntagsZeitung", Guntern said. What the public did not learn: Gunterns lean three-page paper is only the tip of the iceberg. Hidden behind it there is a 30 pages long secret report that Guntern delivered only to "the parties involved", as he calls it. "Involved" are Swisscom, Leuenberger's (communications) and Koller's (justice and police) departments and the parliament's revisions delegation. Gunterns confidential report not only contains the crucial information to the Natel issue. It partly contradicts the public remarks and to a large extent confirms the SonntagsZeitung article of 28 December 1997. In particular Guntern concealed that the 800,000 Natel users in Switzerland can not only "be located", but are subject to a fully automatted Periodic Location Updating (PLU). PLU means: Every active Natel will announce itself to the closest antenna every three hours, then Swisscom will register its location. Each Natel owner can verify that himself: It is sufficient to put the switched-on mobile telephone next to a transistor radio. It then will emit a clearly audible galloping crackle. Movement data in some cases are stored for many weeks The location information covers not only "one of only 30 location areas" in the country, as Guntern wanted to make believe, it descends down to "radio cell level". In cities it has a precision of a few 100 meters - in open rural areas still a precision of max. 10 kilometers. At least that is what experts from a leading Natel company assure. Thus the quite precise Natel location is registered every three hours. Worse yet: Swisscom stores the cell phones' corresponding "movement data" for seven days - in some cases even for weeks and months. SVP member of parliament Bernhard Seiler, who is president of the parliament's GPK delegation, confirms these facts to the SonntagsZeitung. Data Protection commissioner Odilo Guntern too admits: "The subject PLU is discussed in detail in my report." He will not talk about "technical details" however. It is quick to calculate. Eight location reports from 800,000 cell phones per day, stored for one week: Swisscom permanently has more that 40 million data available on where and how the 800,000 Natels are moving through the country. They only serve for making connections, is said officially. But whoever has access to this information can immediately print out a "movement profile" and learn where exactly the Natel (and thus, its owner) has been during the past seven days. Guntern: "That is not impossible." Using radiogoniometics (see graphics) Swisscom can even locate each Natel to an exactness of 50 meters and tap the conversations. That also applies to the controversial Natel D Easy: "we have movement data and operational data for these devices as well", Odilo Guntern assures. That explains why the Conferedate Justice and Police Department and Federal Attorney General Carla Del Ponte demand that buyers of such devices should be registered systematically. If necessary the police would like to know whom the movement profile of a given Natels belongs to. And why did the Guntern report remain secret? The "parties involved" blame each other for the secretiveness. Guntern: "I didn't even ask them if they would like to publish the report, and decided myself that it was not public." The controlling authorities at the Swiss parliament are not going to accept that: "We were of the opinion that the entire Guntern report would be presented in public", says the SP deputy Werner Carobbio from Tessin, who also is a member of the GPK delegation. "We will bring up the issue of "movement profiles of Natel users" for deepened discussion", he promises. --------------------------------------------------------------- Les Temps Online, July 7, 1998: COMMUNICATION TELECOMS. Yesterday the federal data protection commissioner presented his annual report Odilo Guntern: «Natel owners must be able to remain anonymous» By Gabriel Sigrist In Switzerland, every citizen can walk into a store and acquire a smard part to be inserted into a portable telephone for 120 francs. Swisscom's system Natel D Easy does not require any subscription and thus the user can remain anonymous. This anonymity disturbs the Attorney General of the Confederation, Carla Del Ponte, who on several occasions set her face against a system «used by all the criminals». According to the department of public prosecution, the new ordinance on telecommunications imposed identification of Natel D easy users beginning January 1st. The federal data protection commissioner's report completely contradicts this assertion. «There is no legal base for keeping records of Natel easy customers», Odilo Guntern concludes in his annual report. The data protection commissioner goes even further: «In our society, protection of the individual requires the possibility to talk on the phone without being recorded in files, he stated towards Les Temps. Record the purchasers of «easy» cards does not make sense because the criminals use other means to remain anonymous, such as foreign cards but also call-back services or simply phone booths.» In the neighbour countries however the purchasers of such cards must declare their identity. «It is because the laws are different, explains Odilo Guntern. In Switzerland, identification is obligatory only when there is a long-term customer provider relation, which is not the case with pre-paid cards.» The card easy is thus legally comparable to a CFF multicourse subscription or a phone card to use in booths. Goods which can be acquired anonymously. However the debate is not closed: «In our opinion the legal base is sufficient to impose registration of the users, explains Jürg Blaser, spokesman of the department of public prosecution. It is essential for the security of our country to be able to identify the holders of portable telephones.» The federal Office of communications (Ofcom) will decide. According to Odilo Guntern, it currently remains «perfectly legal» to acquire a card easy without giving your name. Swisscom however encourages the purchasers to identify themselves: the operator offers a small gift to those who reveal their personal data. The comissioner also occupied himself with in the possibilities of tracing mobile telephones. According to his report, Swisscom can locate a simply powered-on portable in a relatively large zone, but not to the cell (a circle of ten kilometers). There too, opinions diverge. According to Christian Masson, enthusiastic activist of the freedom of circulation, the GSM system used by Swisscom's Natel stores the precise localization of the devices every three hours, for maintenance purposes. Odilo Guntern does not mention such a process in his report. According to Swisscom, the users' positions are erased during their movement. The report also puts emphasis on customer fidelity cards such as the M-Cumulus by Migros. «Any holder of such a card must be informed of the various discounts of which he can profit, as well as of the data processing relating to it», indicates the report. On the Internet: The full report of the federal data protection commissionser on www.edsb.ch The site of Mr. Masson on www.iimel.com/interception/mobile_trace.htm