Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Belgian police to snoop internet lines

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 15:07:24 -0400

********

Belgian police to snoop internet lines  
 
16 April 2004

BRUSSELS - The League of Human Rights has slammed a "scandalous" move by
the
Belgian government to begin snooping on private email communications on
the
country's high-speed internet lines.

The Computer Crime Unit of the federal Belgian police is to begin
testing an
Israeli system of so-called 'e-taps' on Belgacom high-speed internet
connections on Monday, Belgian daily La Derniere Heure revealed.

They then plan to install the system, which is capable of intercepting,
reading and recording email messages, across all high-speed 'ADSL' lines
in
Belgium.

"The legitimate fight against terrorism can in no way justify a practice
which will see each citizen connected become liable to bugging," said a
statement published Friday by the Belgian committee of the League of
Human
Rights (LHR).

Belgium's federal police authorities said the testing of the tapping
system,
due to last several days, will not involve private internet lines but
will
only be carried out on Belgacom high-speed lines within the police
administration. 

The LHR said it was "scandalised" by the move and "calls on the minister
of
the interior not to proceed with the tests of interception and recording
and
to definitively halt any introduction of this illegal system."   

The eavesdropping "constitutes a flagrant violation of the right to
privacy
as defined by both the European Convention on Human Rights and the
Belgian
constitution," the LHR added.

Belgian press reports Friday claimed that unlike phone taps, which are
applied to a specific line, the snooping on high-speed internet lines
would
involve the filtering of all email traffic in order to intercept the
targeted user. 

The system, called Nice, can also moniter all internet activity on an
individual  computer, including which websites he or she is visiting.

Belgacom onb Friday refused any comment on the plans.

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=48&story_id=6708

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