I've updated my Irish Data Privacy Resources pages -- at long last! -- to make them easier to navigate and to get missing material online and accessible. The section is now divided in three: 1) a general introduction to the data retention issue in Ireland; 2) a listing of all my published pieces on this area and some additional media coverage; and 3) background to the issue and media coverage which shows just how data stored in huge databases can be misused and abused.

I have a few more things to add -- for example, the stories I wrote for the Irish Times and Wired News that revealed that the major telecoms companies in Ireland were holding call records for six years (I made a few calls to Irish companies after The Guardian highlighted a similar situation in the UK). This spurred the investigation by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner that then created the 'gap' around the legal issue of whether data can be retained at all, that in turn prompted the secret cabinet direction last May requiring the telcos to retain the data, which finally, got the Department of Justice to think a three year data retention bill was a [doh!] good solution. So yes, I will accept some blame for helping to create the current situation, and hell no, I won't apologise for doing so!

I also plan to start scanning in some of the choicer bits of documentation I have received on the issue under Ireland's Freedom of Information Act, to make that available for general perusal, too. However, that will take a few more weeks.