Germany throws out 'intrusive' data law

Germany’s highest court today overturned a law allowing the state to keep information on phone calls and emails to help in tracking criminal networks.

It posed a “grave intrusion” to personal privacy, the Karlsruhe-based Federal Constitutional Court ruled.

The law ordering all data excluding content from phone calls and email exchanges be retained for six months violated Germans’ constitutional right to private correspondence and must be revised, the court said.

It added that the law failed to sufficiently balance the need for personal privacy against that for providing security, although it did not rule out data retention in principle.