<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt"><div><h1><font size="3"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This may be of interest to some listers.</span></font></h1>Regards,<br><br>Leonard Obura Aloo<br><br><h1>German high court: law ordering phone, e-mail traffic data
retention violates constitution</h1>
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<p class="clearfix"> <span class="byline bordered">MELISSA EDDY</span>
<span class="titleline"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1267603666_0">Associated Press</span> Writer</span> </p>
<p class="date">5:23 AM EST, March 2, 2010</p>
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BERLIN (AP) — Germany's highest court <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1267603666_1">on Tuesday</span> overturned a law
allowing authorities to retain data on <span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1267603666_2">telephone calls</span> and e-mail
traffic for help in tracking criminal networks.<br>
<br>
A law ordering data on calls and e-mail exchanges be retained for six
months for possible use by criminal authorities violated Germans'
<span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1267603666_3">constitutional right</span> to private correspondence and must be revised, the
Federal Constitutional Court ruled.<br>
<br>
In its ruling, the court said the law failed to sufficiently balance
the need for personal privacy against that for providing security,
although it did not rule out data retention in principle.<br>
<br>
"The disputed instructions neither provided a sufficient level of data
security, nor sufficiently limited the possible uses of the data," the
court said.<br>
<br>
Nearly 35,000 Germans had appealed to the court to overturn the law,
which stems from a 2006 <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1267603666_4">European Union</span> anti-terrorism directive
requiring telecommunications companies to retain phone data and
Internet logs for a minimum of six months in case they are needed for
<span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1267603666_5">criminal investigations</span>.<br>
<br>
The court upheld the EU directive, saying the problem lay instead with
how the German parliament chose to interpret it.<br>
<br>
Under the German law, which went into effect Jan. 2008, information
about all calls from mobile or <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1267603666_6">landline phones</span> was retained for six
months, including who called whom, from where and for how long.<br>
<br>
The following year, that law was expanded to include the data
surrounding all contact via e-mail.<br>
<br>
Although the laws forbid authorities from retaining the contents of
either form of communication, they met with fierce opposition from
<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1267603666_7">civil rights groups</span>.<br>
<br>
"Massive amounts of data about German citizens who pose no threat and
are not suspects is being retained," Germany's commissioner for <span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1267603666_8">data
security issues</span>, Peter Schaar, told ARD's morning show.<br>
<br>
Experts argue the information is crucial to being able to trace crimes
involving heavy use of the Internet, including tracking terror networks
and pursuing child pornography.<br>
<br>
_______<br>
<br>
Associated Press writer Verena Schmitt-Roschmann contributed to this
report.<br>
<br>
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