German Court Declares Data Retention Law Unconstitutional
On March 2, 2010, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that a law allowing law enforcement authorities to store telephone and Internet data is inconsistent with the right to privacy under the German Constitution. The law allows data on calls and e-mail exchanges to be retained for six months, and made available for use by criminal authorities. The court found that the law went beyond the original intent of the directive the European Union enacted in March 2006. EPIC has documented the impact of data retention requirements. For more information, see EPIC’s webpage on data retention.