Beatriz Busaniche, a member of Fundacion Via Libre, got the word out to reporters about why the proposal signified a threat to the privacy rights of Argentinians. At first, she was uncertain whether the message was getting through. “Almost no one paid attention – they didn’t understand,” she recalled. But she did receive a phone call from one journalist who asked her to explain the issue. Since the journalist had little technical expertise, Busaniche stayed on the phone with her for two full hours. She also connected the journalist with other experts in Latin America, including EFF’s own International Rights Director Katitza Rodriguez, who lived in Peru at the time. Rodriguez explained the problems with the European Data Retention Draft Directive, which was later adopted in 2006.

“After that, nothing happened for almost one month,” Busaniche said – and so she did not feel optimistic that the issue would be picked up in the press.

Then, early one Sunday morning, Busaniche’s phone started ringing and ringing. “It was journalists from TV channels – main TV channels – asking me what was happening,” she said. That’s the moment she learned that her interview had been featured in a prominent front-page story in Pagina 12, a Buenos Aires-based publication. Splashed across the top was the title, “Hay Un Espia En Mi PC,” or There is a Spy in my PC in English.

“It had such a strong impact,” Busaniche said. The initial story and the media coverage that ensued generated widespread public controversy. Within a week, President Kirchner stated publicly that the mandatory data retention decree had been a mistake.

Three years later, in 2008, the Supreme Court in Argentina officially killed the data retention regulation with a finding that it was unconstitutional. The data retention legislation was annulled due to lack of precision in its wording, and the court called the legislation a "drastic interference with the private sphere of the individual."