Germany Suspends Communication Data Retention Law

Citing security and transparency concerns, the German Federal Constitution Court has suspended the law requiring communication providers and ISPs to retain traffic information for six months for use by law enforcement:

"The judges said the data storage was not secure enough and that it was not sufficiently clear what it would be used for."

The law was implemented to follow an EU Directive aimed at fighting terrorism but the court ordered the suspension until new rules for the storage and use of the data could be implemented:

"The court demanded that stricter conditions be attached to the use and storage of the data, saying it needed to be encoded and that there should be "transparent control" of what the information was used for."

The court additionally ordered all data stored to date to be deleted.

German High Court Limits Phone and E-Mail Data Storage