EU court says mass data retention illegal
Source: Reuters
Wed Dec 21, 2016 | 1:22pm EST
By Julia Fioretti | BRUSSELS
The mass retention of data is illegal, the European Union's highest court said on Wednesday, dealing a blow to Britain's newly passed surveillance law and signaling that security concerns do not justify excessive privacy infringements.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) said its ruling was based on the view that holding traffic and location data en masse allowed "very precise conclusions to be drawn concerning the private lives of the persons whose data has been retained".
Such interference with people's privacy could only be justified by the objective of fighting serious crime and access to data should be subject to prior review by a court or independent body except in urgent cases, it said.
The ruling is likely to upset governments seeking to deal with the threat of attacks such as those in Paris and Brussels and, on Monday, in Berlin.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-court-privacy-idUSKBN14A13I?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
