[Gllug] New EU data retention rules approved

[Rev Simon Rumble]

On 14/12/2005, "Richard Jones" <rich at annexia.org> wrote:

>Can you tell us how to do this (with exim)?

I'd be surprised if it wasn't enabled by default in $DISTRO.

>Good article in the Economist about a month ago (not online as far as
>I can see) about how the money laundering regulations caused a huge
>burden for much of the economy, without actually having any noticable
>effect on "terrorism".  They had a large burden on me - I couldn't
>open a joint account with my wife because we simply don't have enough
>paper documentation to prove that we live together.  I suspect that
>data retention will be a similar burden.

Your conflating money laundering and terrist financing, which the
politicians also do.  The problem is that terrism is incredibly cheap. 
The London bombings probably cost no more than a few thousand.

Money laundering, OTOH, by definition involves moving large amounts of
money around.  Nobody's interested in you or I moving a couple of
thousand into an offshore account to avoid paying tax on the interest
when:
* Large multinationals can funnel profits through low-tax regimes using
differential pricing,
* Global drug cartels can funnel profits into North Cyprus accounts
without anyone noticing.

But yes, the money laundering regs are not really worth a hell of a lot. 
Though they've given me a job.  The biggest problem is that the
regulators, to whom the banks have to report suspicious activity, are
swamped in an ocean of data and desperately short of skilled
investigators.

Banks have very little interest in combatting what is, otherwise, a very
lucrative stream of revenue for them.  The thing they claim to fear is
"reputational risk", but I really can't see anyone closing their bank
account due to a bank being exposed for facilitating money laundering. 
Did anyone close their RBS account after the big scandal[1]?  I guess if
one were found responsible for a S11 or 7/7 type event, it might be
worse.

[1]: http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Library/Communication/PR/2002/123.shtml
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug