The Federal Constitutional Court in Germany has apparently reversed an anti-terror law that allowed authorities to keep information about certain telephone calls and emails for up to six months. The Court said this was a “grave intrusion” on privacy rights. 35,000 Germans supposedly joined in the appeal and the Court has ordered deletion of the information obtained. The Court also said that the circumstances and instructions for retaining the material were unclear under the law, among other problems.
German Privacy Decision
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One response to “German Privacy Decision”
“Apparently”? “Supposedly”? Oh come on …
Some major facts: The court said that data retention by itself is ok (so a new law will be drafted). This is much less than what many people hoped for. It’s not called “appeal”, but “constitutional complaint”. The FCC is not an ordinary court and thus not responsible appeals, it only checks compliance with the constitution. Apparently the FCC tried to avoid a conflict with EU law and the ECJ. So this is probably a really interesting question for you.
Actually, I have no idea why the press release is not available in English.