Germany can do it, why can’t we?
German court orders stored telecoms data deletion
Vast amounts of telephone and e-mail data held in Germany must be deleted, the country’s highest court has ruled.
The constitutional court overturned a 2008 law requiring communications data to be kept for six months.
The law – designed to combat terrorism and serious crime – required telecoms companies to keep logs of calls, faxes, SMS messages, e-mails and internet use.
But nearly 35,000 Germans lodged complaints against it, arguing that the law violated their right to privacy.
Responding to the thousands of formal complaints, Germany’s constitutional court described the law as a “particularly serious infringement of privacy in telecommunications”. </em>
Wait a minute…citizens complained about something…and got it changed? Whoa. Thank god that hasn’t caught on here, imagine the mess!
