Constitutional Court decision on data-collection bill

Berlin, 19.03.2008

Germany's highest court has limited the scope of a German data-collection law. The law gave the federal government broad access to stored telephone and Internet data -- including e-mail addresses, length of call and numbers dialled -- for a six-month period. In the case of cell phone calls, service providers could potentially save data on the location calls were made from.

On 11th March 2008 the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe issued an injunction against it, declaring parts of the law unconstitutional pending further review.

The ruling essentially restores the pre-January status quo: Data will still be saved, but authorities will only be allowed to access it under extreme circumstances, and with a warrant. Accessing the data will be allowed only when other avenues of investigation are blocked or hopeless.

The bill has caused controversy over the past few months, as privacy advocates and civil rights groups criticized its scope. Opponents said it would make massive amounts of personal data vulnerable to misuse. They also complained that private information could be given to foreign intelligence services, who could then use the information in ways not covered by German law.

The bill's opponents also said the law would be used by big entertainment companies to pursue and prosecute people who illegally download music and movies. It's still unclear and heavily discussed amongst lawyers and public attorney's whether or not using the saved data for such purposes has been ruled out by the constitutional court.

The verdict was not a surprise -- the Karlsruhe court has been leaning for months toward individual rights in cases of government data collection. In February it even established a new "fundamental right" for German citizens to trustworthy, surveillance-free computer systems.