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Deutsch: Müssen wir eine unkorrekte Vorratsdaten-Richtlinie umsetzen?
While the future of data retention seems unclear, in Germany conservative MPs are pressing the Justice Ministry to bring the legislation in line with the current text of the directive, while liberals and greens tend towards a restriction of the information storage.
In March 2010, the German Constitutional Court ruled as void the national law transposing the directive which was proposing the storage of data for six months and ordered the destruction of the already collected data. Now, the Justice Minister has again been asked to "do her duty" and draft legislation in line with the European directive. Peter Altmaier, a parliamentary leader in the CDU, believes that a way must be found to meet the conditions set by both the EU and the constitutional court.
But the directive is considered to be flawed even by German MEPs: "The Data Retention Directive was contentious when it passed five years ago and it remains so today", said the liberal German MEP Alexander Alvaro who believes that, while the German law enforcement and government agencies need the "necessary tools and resources to stop and deter acts of terrorism, the EU must respect the privacy of its citizens."
He drew attention to the recent European Commission report that has underlined privacy concerns and revealed flawed, inconsistent data retention practices which raise serious questions as to the effectiveness , necessity and proportionality of the law.
This assessment is accurately proved by a recent document summarising the position of the parties at the European Court of Justice in the Bonnier case (C-461/10). In its opinion, the Commission seems to argue that the telecommunication data retained under the safeguard that it is retained only for the investigation and prosecution of serious crime can be used without problems in order to investigate intellectual property-related offences, that might not even be crimes, let alone serious crimes. The text also implies that the retained data may be given directly to the copyright owners in a civil lawsuit.
With the "old" arguments for a data retention directive, a new leaked document from UK, Ireland and France is arguing to the other Member States that data retention is very necessary for law enforcement and the Directive should remain unchanged. Moreover, the documents suggest that anything less than a 12 month retention period is unacceptable.
Most of the operational examples that claim to provide a "qualitative demonstration" of the data retained dp not seem to be relevant for data retention, with the data being obtained directly from the victims and other people or too new, therefore accessible directly from electronic communications operators with a specific judicial warrant, and not retained based on data retention requirements.
The same UK police force is now being dragged in the News of the World scandal, with allegations that senior journalists from the said newspaper used to pay some police officers to find celebrities or other people they wanted to write about by tracking their mobile phone signal.
The Data Retention Directive Is flawed for Europe (updated 8.07.2011) http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/data-retention-directive-flawed...
German MPs pressure minister on data retention (7.07.2011)
http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/German-MPs-pressure-minister-on-data-...
European Court of Justice - Hearing on Bonnier case (only in Swedish)
http://www.edri.org/files/C461-10-rapport.pdf
Leak document of data retention opinion of UK, France and Ireland
http://www.edri.org/files/Data-retention-opinion-Uk-fr-Ie.pdf
News of the World accused of paying police to track stars' phones (12.07.2011)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/12/news-of-the-world-pinging