- eco Association hopes for a clear ruling to strengthen fundamental rights
- Massive invasion of privacy: Data retention affects 2.35 billion records per day.
In the legal dispute between SpaceNet AG and the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will decide on 20 September, whether the German regulations on data retention are compatible with EU law. eco – Association of the Internet Industry considers data retention to be a serious encroachment on the fundamental rights of citizens and has supported the lawsuit of SpaceNet AG from the beginning.
In this regard, eco Chair of the Board Oliver SĂĽme says:
“The ECJ Advocate General has already declared the German regulations on data retention to be incompatible with EU law and our Federal Minister of Justice has also spoken out against data retention on several occasions. I wonder when this state of limbo will end and the initiative will be taken to act so that Germany finally buries data retention. I, therefore, hope for a clear ruling from Luxembourg in favour of our fundamental rights.”
The general and unsubstantiated storage of traffic data affects almost all German users with around 2.35 billion data records per day (IP addresses and telecommunications) and is estimated to cost the industry more than 600 million Euro, SĂĽme continued.
“Data retention seriously interferes with our privacy and at the same time does not even bring any proven added value to law enforcement. Even if the ECJ declares the German regulations on data retention to be incompatible with EU law, it will again take several months for the proceedings to continue in the German Federal Administrative Court. The German federal government must not waste any time here and should quickly find targeted and appropriate solutions to actually end data retention.”
More information:
- Background paper (in German)
- Fact sheet on data retention: What is traffic data (in German)
