German Court Rules for Privacy Advocates over Data Collection
The German Constitutional Court has overruled a 2008 law which required telecommunications companies to keep communications data for six months. The law was passed to aid in counter terrorist operations and combating transnational crime and required telecom companies to maintain logs for SMS messages, e-mails, calls, faxes and Internet use.
Around 35,000 German nationals filed complaints against the law, claiming it violated their right to privacy. Following the serious of formal complaints, the German Constitutional Court said that the 2008 law was a “particularly serious infringement of privacy in telecommunications.”
Nevertheless, the court did not rule against the principle of data collection but rather that companies could not record telephone calls, read e-mails or SMS messages. However, the records can include the who contacted whom, the length of any contact and how often it occurred.
The press release (in German) regarding the case can be viewed here
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