[pygy_]

AFAIK, the European parliament is so far reasonable regarding the Internet and privacy.

However, the Commission (the executive branch, and especially the Trade Commisioner, Karel De Gucht) has been pushing hard for ACTA, going as far as lying, several times, to the Parliament. When the Parliament rejected ACTA, De Gucht said he would look for other means to bypass the decision.

[ghostdiver]

Yet, in EU, when you use prepaid cellphone, you can be eavesdropped for no reason, only because it is prepaid cellphone.

[pygy_]

I didn't know that. It plugs a hole in the targeted surveillance programs, at the expense of all prepaid users.

The target demographics for prepaid is mostly kids and teens, poor people, and people concerned about their privacy, split between sensitized geeks, unfaithful lovers and criminals.

For the first two demographics cheap monthly plans are now emerging (in France, Free offers two hours of talk and infinite SMS for 2€ per month and unlimited talk, SMS and 3GB of data for 20€ per month).

It sucks for the last three.

On a slightly related topic, in demonstrations, people caught without a cell phone during an ID check often end up arrested for "administrative reasons".

[redblacktree]

> On a slightly related topic, in demonstrations, people caught without a cell phone during an ID check often end up arrested for "administrative reasons".

So the likely reason for this is so that they can get an accounting of who was there, right? Where are you referring to?

[pygy_]

I guess it's because no cell phone means no mean to track you remotely, which can otherwise be done, even if your phone is turned off.

It is definitely taken as suspicious.

Source: an alter-globalist activist acquaintance who demonstrates (peacefully) every other day.

[ahel]

Thank you, I didn't know it. Any source for this claim (so I could dig deeper)?

[chopin]

Citation, please?

[Sprint]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Retention_Directive