German authorities face tighter controls on access to telecom tra...
German authorities face tighter controls on access to telecom traffic data under a preliminary ruling by that nation’s Federal Constitutional Court. The court said law enforcement may not access such data, except in cases of “urgent danger” to life,…
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risk of injury or individual freedom or serious threat to national security, according to attorney Axel Spies. The case at issue involved a challenge to a law mandating storage of telecommunications traffic data. The law requires telecommunications carriers and service providers to retain all traffic data for six months, Spies said. In March, the court said police agencies only can access the information for very serious crimes, not for misdemeanours or copyright violations, he said. The order made no mention of reimbursing communications service providers’ costs, he said. The court said it needs more information to decide if that financial burden justifies freezing the law, leaving the compensation issue hanging, he said. All telecom carriers must now store their traffic data, and ISPs are subject to the law beginning Jan. 1, he said. A challenge to the EU data retention directive is pending at the European Court of Justice, he said.