A Dutch
court has scrapped a national data retention law. The judge ruled that,
although saving metadata might help solve crimes, it certainly breached the
privacy of telephone and Internet users.
Deutsche Welle, 11 March 2015
A court in
the Netherlands struck down a law requiring telecoms and Internet service
providers to store their clients' private phone and email data, saying it breached
EU privacy rules. The decision took effect immediately on Wednesday, but
officials announced that the Security and Justice Ministry could appeal.
"The
judge ruled that data retention is necessary and effective to combat serious
crime," according to the district court in The Hague. "Dutch
legislation, however, infringes on the individual's right to privacy and the
protection of personal data." The court added that "the law therefore
contravenes the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union."
The law had
previously required telephone companies in the Netherlands to store information
about all fixed and mobile calls for a year. Internet providers had to store
information on their clients' use for six months.
In April
2014, the European Court of Justice struck down a 2006 EU law forcing telecoms
to store electronic metadata - the time, date, duration and destination of
communiques, but not the content - for up to two years. The practice was ruled
to be invasive, despite the claimed anti-terror potential. Advocate General
Pedro Cruz Villalon had declared the 2006 legislation illegal and told the
European Union's 28 member states to take the necessary steps to withdraw it.
'Far-reaching
crime'
The written
ruling by Gerard van Ham conceded that scrapping the data storage "could
have far-reaching consequences for investigating and prosecuting crimes,"
but, the judge added, this could not justify the privacy breaches that the law
entails. The judge did not set a deadline for disposing of the data.
According
to Privacy First, one of seven organizations that took the government to court
last month, the ruling "will bring to an end years of massive privacy
breaches." The Dutch Association of Journalists was also a party to the
suit.
After last
year's ruling in the EU court, the government had announced that it would amend
its law. However, in a written statement released on Wednesday, officials from
the Security and Justice Ministry criticized the court's decision.
"Providers
are no longer required to store data for investigations," the officials
complained in the statement. "The ministry is seriously concerned about
the effect this will have on fighting crime."
The extent
to which governments and corporations monitor private individuals has risen to
the forefront in the wake of a series of documents released since 2013 by the
American intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden. According to the latest
report, New Zealand has monitored neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region. A new
anti-terror law in China requires that foreign corporations allow the
government to access their data.
The
Wikimedia Foundation has sued the US National Secutiry Agency over its mass surveillance of private individuals. And consumer advocates have lashed out at
large corporations that harvest personal data for commercial purposes.
mkg/rc (Reuters, AFP, AP)
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