Your personal information is for sale: Eircom and Garda computers edition

Billy Flynn (the private detective who exposed much of the Garda wrongdoing being investigated by the Morris Tribunal) has recently confirmed that your Eircom telephone records are for sale to the highest bidder, and that there is corrupt access to the Garda Pulse computer system. In an interview with Village Magazine he gives further details:

Central to the success of Billy Flynn in the McBrearty affair was his acquisition of the phone logs of Garda John O'Dowd, from whose phone extortionist calls were made to associates of the McBreartys. In all, he obtained the phone logs of over 30 people, most of them related to Garda phones. In the course of the extended interview with Village he disclosed that another investigator, a retired garda, is able to tap into the Garda Pulse system (ie, the Garda computer), but he (Billy Flynn) is not in a position to do that.

Billy Flynn explained: 'I was driving home from Dublin to Enfield and I gave a hitchhiker a lift. He was not a usual hitchhiker, something had happened his car and he was in a hurry to get to a destination before public transport would get him there. On the way I discovered he worked in Eircom and as he was getting out of the car I asked if he could help me. I told him what I had in mind and he said he would.

'Afterwards I would meet him in an agreed location. I would drive up and we would exchange envelopes, his containing the phone logs I needed and I remunerating him.'

Does anybody really believe that data retention information (including details of your emails and internet use) won't be abused in the same way?