Nearly 50 German organizations urged the government to back away...
Nearly 50 German organizations urged the government to back away from Internet and telephony traffic data retention rules. The Federal Constitutional Court declared traffic storage provisions unconstitutional in March but “some voices are already calling for the re-enactment of new…
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data retention legislation,” the groups wrote in an April 20 letter to Federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger. The voided law was intended to enact into national legislation the 2006 EU data retention directive which requires phone companies and ISPs to store data about customers’ communications for use in law enforcement investigations. But the regime allows the collection of information about social contacts, movements and private lives in the absence of any suspicion, the organizations said. Telecom data retention “thus undermines the professional secrecy of lawyers, physicians, clergy, help lines and other professionals, and creates the risk of data losses and data abuses,” they said. It also compromises freedom of the press and the protection of sources, and raises costs for ISPs and telecom providers, they said. Studies show that communications data available today is usually adequate for effective criminal investigations, they said. Legal experts expect the European Court of Human Rights to strike down data retention in the absence of suspicion, and EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding and Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said they'll investigate the directive’s compatibility with the EU fundamental rights charter, the groups said. They asked Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger to “reject blanket retention of telecommunications data, regardless of a possible EU infringement procedure.” Signatories include civil rights activists, scientists, psychologists, police officers, women’s help desks and emergency lines, journalists, consumers, lawyers, judges, doctors, trade unions and ISPs.