Germany Going to Court over Telecommunications Storage Requirement

May 31, 2012

Germany rejects the European Commission directive requiring phone and internet companies to store records.

According to a report by Reuters, the EU executive is planning to refer Germany to the European Union’s highest court over failure to introduce a law requiring phone and Internet companies to store records for at least six months.

The case follows a European Commission directive from 2006, which was aimed at helping authorities track down suspected perpetrators of “serious crime.” This directive ordered the 27 EU member states to introduce laws requiring telecommunications companies to store records of emails and phone calls, including those made via the Internet.

According to the Reuters article, the German government tried to introduce such a law, but the country’s top court rejected it in March 2010, saying that it led to a “particularly deep intrusion into telecommunications privacy.” The German Minister for Justice, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, has said she wants law enforcement authorities to produce more concrete evidence of wrongdoing before they can access people’s data.

You can read the Reuters article here.

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