Hacker News Reader

Comment by visarga | Hacker News Reader

This distinction between metadata and data is getting old. Metadata is personal, revealing information to a large degree. The analogy with envelopes and the address written on the outside is absurd. There is a huge difference between that and the huge electronic logs they create from our mobile phones and internet activities (such as cell tower based location, search keywords on http sites, etc)

Metadata is still privacy infringing personal data.

View on HN

That's my point. He said a judge's order is required for a "wiretap", but other commenters have said (and provided text) that metadata is available without a judge's order. So unless that statement is incorrect and a judge's order is actually required, the entire argument that there's a high bar to wiretap is false. He's just redefined "wiretap", that's all.

Other commenter here. The text says that any autority (autoridade policial ou administrativa -> police force or administrative power) may require that the metadata be recorded for a period of time , but access to this metadata needs the judges order.

For example, if the cops starts investigating John Doe they may ask the service provider to keep metadata for a fixed period of time, stated on the Marco Civil (six months IIRC). But access to this metadata can only be authorized by a judge.

Edit: Reread the Marco civil an refreshed my memory. What I said is not entirely correct. All metadata is kept by default and needs a court order to be accessed. What authorities may ask without a court order is for the service provider to keep the metadata for a time longer than specified on the Marco civil.

Also, as I said on my previous comment, the intention of the bill was that only metadata was recorded, but the term "registros de conexão -> connections log" is vague enough to be interpreted in other ways :(

That's useful, thanks.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com