A court in Germany has ordered all data retained under the Data Retention Directive (Directive 2006/24/EC) should be destroyed.
This EU law is one of the more controversial across Europe and has seen protests across the continent, particularly in the Netherlands and Germany where memories of ‘data retention’ have a bitter resonance.
The German court was responding to a complaint brought by 35,000 plaintiffs, the largest number ever associated with one case. The court found the German legislation putting the EU directive into law violated a constitutional guarantee of privacy.
It is worth reminding ourselves of what the Data Retention Directive is: it mandates communication data should be retained for the period of at least 6 months. In particular, it requires the following across the European Union:
- trace and identify the source of a communication, e.g. the telephone number and subscriber name and address (telecoms); user ID and name and address of the subscriber or registered user (Internet)
- identify the destination of a communication e.g. number called, any number to which a call is rerouted, name and address of subscriber/user (telecoms); user ID or telephone number of the intended recipient(s) of an Internet telephony call, name and address of subscriber/user (Internet)
- identify the date, time and duration of a communication
- identify the type of communication e.g. the telephone or Internet service used
- identify users‟ communication equipment, or what purports to be their equipment
- identify the location of mobile communication equipment e.g. cell ID and geographic location of cell.
It is also worth remembering where this EU law comes from. Think of the Data Retention Directive as the UK’s gift to Europe: It started off life as Part 11 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001) in the UK Parliament. At this time is was voluntary.
When the UK’s presidency came in 2005, the UK introduced it as legislation in the form of a Europe-wide, compulsory framework for data retention and mass-surveillance.
Welcome, Europe, to HMP Britain!
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