EU court strikes down data retention law, cites violation of privacy rights

In a statement after its ruling on the European Union's law on data retention, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has struck the statute that requires Internet and phone companies to store massive amounts of their customers' data. According to the EU's top court, the very law violates the citizen's right to privacy.

"(The EU's data-retention law) interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data," European Court of Justice have said.

The court also added that although the EU's requirement of data collection to fight crimes was justified, the current law has not set limits adequate enough to ensure that only the information necessary to carry out its intended goal is being stored.

The 2006 law orders phone and Internet providers to collect and store details of connections on their network should law enforcement authorities require the data, Bloomberg said. The companies are required to store the data for a minimum of six months, and that the data should be deleted after two years.

Bloomberg said that the latest critique of the EU on its own rules piles up the pressure for lawmakers to produce data protection measures that has more teeth following revelations that US spies conduct surveillance on conversations of EU leaders. The leaks exposed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has caused a transatlantic spat and a call for deals that would effective stop the eavesdropping programs.

Dublin-based lawyer Simon McGarr for Digital Rights Ireland, an Irish campaign group that took the case heard before the European Court of Justice, said, "The court has rejected the principle of mass surveillance of EU citizens without suspicion and says it's incompatible with the charter of fundamental rights. It's a whole new court if it's going to start making decisions like this."

Tags

European Court of Justice, European Union, National Security Agency

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