Germany’s
highest court has ruled against the law allowing the storage and sharing of
telecommunication data by security services. Now the provisions need to be
curbed.
Germany's
constitutional court has ruled the current law allowing security services to store
and share telecommunications data to be too far-reaching and therefore
unconstitutional.
The current
legislation allows prosecutors to access passwords and PIN numbers of
prospective offenders. The judges found that to be in violation of the basic law
on self-determination as stated in the German constitution.
There it
says that citizens have the right to maintain control over personal
information.
The judges
on Friday found that it was unconstitutional to allow investigators to gather
sensitive information without clearer restrictions on how to use them.
Information
on individuals' telephone, internet or bank details can be obtained from
telecommunications companies only for criminial prosecution. But investigators
have been found to have gathered and stored sensitive information extensively
in the name of preventing criminal activity. But now the constitutional court
has found this to have been excessive.
In 1983 the
supreme court in Karlsruhe passed its first verdict on data protection and
ruled as unconstitutional the procedure where town registry offices passed on
information to be used in the general census of that year. Back then the judges
had clarified that every citizen has the right to know what personal
information is recorded where.
The latest
ruling this Friday means that the law governing the storage and use by public
administration offices has to be ammended by June 2013.
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