Europe’s top court kills invasive phone and email data collection law

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/08/europes-top-court-kills-invasive-phone-and-email-data-collection-law/



Europe’s top court kills invasive phone and email data collection law
By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, April 8, 2014 12:17 EDT

Europe’s top court on Tuesday struck down an EU law forcing telecoms operators to store private phone and email data for up to two years, judging it too invasive, despite its usefulness in combating terrorism.

By allowing EU governments to access the data, “the directive interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data,” the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said.

Advocate General Pedro Cruiz Villalon declared the legislation illegal and told the European Union’s 28 member states to take the necessary steps to withdraw it.

The decision to scupper the 2006 Data Retention Directive comes as Europe weighs concerns over electronic snooping in the wake of revelations about systematic US surveillance of email and telephone communications.