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German Data Retention Law Ruled Unconstitutional

Posted by Soulskill on from the raise-a-stein dept.

mseeger writes "The German Federal Constitutional Court has ruled the country's current data retention law unconstitutional. All stored telephone and email communication data, previously kept for six months in case it was needed by law enforcement, now must be deleted as soon as possible. The court criticized the lack of data security and insufficient restrictions for access to the data. The president of the court said continuing to retain the data would 'cause a diffusely threatening feeling of being under observation that can diminish an unprejudiced perception of one's basic rights in many areas.' While it doesn't disallow data retention in general, the imposed restriction demands a complete reworking of the law." An anonymous reader contributes the Court's press release and more information on the ruling, both in German.

20 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Great Precedent by wintercolby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now only if the rest of The West would follow suit.

    --
    Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. --Aldous Huxley
    1. Re:Great Precedent by ahaubold · · Score: 3, Informative

      At least the new EU commisioner for justice Viviane Reding announced an enquiry of the EU Directive which was one of the main reasons for making that law in the first place.

      --
      Nope, I think you mistook me for someone else.
    2. Re:Great Precedent by V+for+Vendetta · · Score: 4, Informative

      To be honest, we weren't the first ones. The Constitutinal Courts of Romania and Bulgaria (not sure of the second country) already ruled the EU data retention law unconstitutional.

    3. Re:Great Precedent by The+Abused+Developer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because Romanians went trough the most atrocious dictator of the end of the century right in the middle of Europe - and they had to pay with thousands of lives and lots of blood for their freedom - the sad true is that only after experiencing on yourself slavery you learn to value the freedom.

  2. Pyrrhic victory? by Ihlosi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unfortunately, the explanations given by the Federal Constitutional Court can be read as an instruction manual on how to create a data retention law 2.0 that will pass the courts muster. Shouldn't take those politicians too long to come up with the new version. :/

    1. Re:Pyrrhic victory? by Mindcontrolled · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, at least they demand some serious restrictions - asymmetric encryption with separately stored keys, no central storage of the data under direct government control, no access without a judge's order, no access without a well-founded and substantiated suspicion, access only for prosecution of serious crimes (exceptions for simple lookup of dynamic IPs), severe penalties for illegitime access. This is way better than what we had before.

      That aside, thank the FSM for our constitutional court. They basically struck down every security-theatre related law in the last couple of years. I am starting to think about a three-strikes law for politicians - vote for three unconstitutional laws and you are out. Loss of eligibility for any political office for 4 years at last. Ahh, well, a man can dream...

      --
      Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
    2. Re:Pyrrhic victory? by Aqualung812 · · Score: 3, Funny

      It would be better to enact your proposed restrictions when a politician was accused of not handling in the voter's best interest by any citizen three times.

      Sounds great! We'll need to ask all of the citizens if their interests have been taken care of well or not. Since what I consider taking care of me might be the opposite of what taken care of is for you, we'll need to go by majority. Also, since we can't spend the time and money to ask every day, how about ever 2-4 years we get together and vote on how well our politicians are doing? I wish there was a political system that did that!

      --
      Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
  3. A great victory by saibot834 · · Score: 5, Informative

    In my story submission, I included a few more details. 35,000 citizens filed a class-action against this law and now after two years we finally see this law voided.

    The "Bundesverfassungsgericht" has once again proven that is the most significant institution in Germany that protects citizens' constitutional rights - in this case the right of informational self-determination.

  4. ACTA by BiggerIsBetter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if this could cause conflict with EU ACTA negotiations. I would expect data retention would be necessary for much of the copyright legislation (eg 3 strikes and similar)

    --
    Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
    1. Re:ACTA by Asic+Eng · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well the German law was already an implementation of a EU directive. However while the constitutional court has rejected the implementation, it did not declare the EU directive illegal. So it's still possible (actually mandatory under EU law) to implement a revised data storage law.

  5. All hail the Chaos Computer Club by Denial93 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Although this ruling is what us IT guys would expect from any reasonable court, the fact of the matter is that judges know shit. The Chaos Computer Club worked their asses off providing expertise to the court, while also mobilizing the German IT scene and putting out pressure on opposing (governmental) parties. This is their success and I salute them. Guess I should get around to finally apply for membership myself...

    --
    blow your mind already
    1. Re:All hail the Chaos Computer Club by Mindcontrolled · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The court is not supposed to know shit. The judges are supposed to listen to experts and form their opinion based upon that - and from reading the decision, I would say they indeed did. Everything working as intended. That aside, all hail the CCC!

      --
      Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
    2. Re:All hail the Chaos Computer Club by saibot834 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't say they know shit. They knew enough to know that their expertise didn't suffice and that's why they invited specialists (including the CCC which of course loved to help). They've carefully heard this case for two years and now they've come to an excellent decision.
      The Federal Constitutional Court did exactly the right thing, that's what is important. It's not their job to know everything about computers and technical measures of data retention. Remember the /. story of a judge who didn't know what the Internet was and had it explained to him before he judged? You don't have to know everything, you just have to know when you should educate yourself.

  6. Unenviable comparison by trurl7 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's dangerous to praise a decision with political ramifications - something good can be twisted into something bad on the next iteration. Still and all, the language is encouraging, and poses the rhetorical question:

    "How messed up is the US when we have to take cues on privacy laws from, of all people, the Germans?"

    As another poster pointed out about informational self-determination, the Germans are discussing the implications of privacy. US courts are still diddling over whether privacy expectation is even "constitutional".

    1. Re:Unenviable comparison by rbarreira · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > of all people, the Germans

      What do you mean? Germany is one of the best countries in terms of privacy protection.

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      The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
    2. Re:Unenviable comparison by Hasai · · Score: 5, Informative

      "How messed up is the US when we have to take cues on privacy laws from, of all people, the Germans?"

      Actually, the Germans, "of all people," have the advantage of knowing precisely just how bad things can get.

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      Regards;

      Hasai

    3. Re:Unenviable comparison by Schmorgluck · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You don't know shit. Germany was the first country to give itself a significant set of laws about protection of personal data, nearly fourty years ago. Other European countries followed and this led, for the EU, to Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.

      --
      There's nothing like $HOME
    4. Re:Unenviable comparison by ffflala · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Two important differences come into play here. First, where the rights overlap (such as freedom of expression) the German Basic Law (constitution) affirmatively establishes rights. The US Constitution only restricts the government from passing laws to abridge constitutional rights.

      Second, the German Basic Law is founded on a concept entirely absent from the US Constitution: the right to dignity. It's the first article in the German constitution, and has been described by the German Constitutional Court as the right from which all other constitutional rights emanate.

      Article 1 [Human Dignity]
      (1) Human dignity is inviolable. To respect and protect it is the duty of all state authority. (2) The German People therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every human community, of peace, and of justice in the world. (3) The following basic rights are binding on legislature, executive, and judiciary as directly valid law.

  7. That's a terrific quote by idontgno · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...a diffusely threatening feeling of being under observation... can diminish an unprejudiced perception of one's basic rights in many areas."

    ^^ This.

    Someone gets it.

    --
    Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  8. Re:Bonus!!! by Ihlosi · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Huh? Social networks are all about getting and keeping as much data as they can. Privacy is their natural enemy.

    Yep. And in Germany, privacy laws apply to you even if you're not the government.