Swedish ISPs to delete personal data

Two Swedish ISPs have said they will stop storing data on their customers in response to new anti-piracy laws.

Anti-piracy laws introduced in Sweden recently have prompted two internet service providers (IPS) to change their data storage policies.

Banhof and Tele2 have announced that they will no longer store identifying IP address data on their customers in the wake of the new legislation.

Under the laws, which are based on the European Union's Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (Ipred), ISPs are required to hand over any data they have on their subscribers to copyright holders.

The copyright holders can they use this information in a civil lawsuit should they choose to take legal action against an individual found to be downloading music, films and video games illegally.

But the two ISPs claim they are not legally bound to store such information and will not support a law that effectively turns them into spies policing the intellectual property issue.

According to Torrent Freak, Niclas Palmstierna, chief executive of Tele2, said the move had been made to protect the privacy of the ISP's customers.

"Previously, we have stored some information about our customer's IP addresses for internal use, but now the privacy issue has been pushed this far with the Ipred discussion," he remarked.

And he added: "There's is nothing in the Electronic Communications Law that decides what we should store, only what we shouldn't store."

According to PC World, a recent survey carried out in Sweden revealed that almost half of internet users in the country are against the anti-piracy legislation.

However, opposition varies across age groups and genders, with young males voicing the most disagreement with the law and consumers over the age of 65 voicing the least.