Germany will make telcos share customer data with the police

[Batu69]

The Chamber of the German Parliament in the Reichstag

Despite two previous laws having been ruled unconstitutional, data retention is back in Germany

Even as the European Union attempts to tighten privacy laws, law-enforcement interests have won a battle in Germany: A new law forces communications service providers there to once again make data about their customers' communications available to police.

On Friday morning, the German parliament approved a law requiring ISPs and mobile and fixed telecommunications operators to retain communications metadata for up to ten weeks.

The country has had an on-again, off-again affair with telecommunications data retention, first introducing a law requiring it in 2008 to comply with a European Union directive.

The German Federal Constitutional Court overturned that law in March 2010 after finding it conflicted with Germany's privacy laws, prompting the European Commission to take the country to court in May 2012 to enforce the directive.

In April 2014, it was the turn of the EU's highest court, the Court of Justice of the EU, to overturn the directive itself on the grounds that it, too, interfered with fundamental privacy rights.

The CJEU has also just overturned the so-called Safe Harbor agreement between the Commission and U.S. authorities on the transfer of private personal data to the U.S. because the agreement did not provide Europeans with sufficient privacy protection from U.S. law enforcement.

The CJEU's and the Constitutional Court's previous decisions didn't discourage German lawmakers from reintroducing the requirement for service providers to conserve the connection data of all their customers, though.

There's a ten-week limit for information about who called whom and when, which IP addresses were attributed to whom and when, and who sent SMS text messages to whom. A four-week limit applies to the location from which an SMS was sent. The content of communications is not stored, and email is exempt from the law.

The German parliament plans to review the law once there is sufficient statistical information about its effectiveness in reducing crime.

Source

[Israeli_Eagle]

Germany logs everything already many years and also work together with some other (bad) countries, nothing new.

Only really new is that it's legal now. ;)

[SnakeMasteR]

Like Israel? :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Israeli_Eagle]

Like Israel? :lol: :lol: :lol:

Sorry, but that is very very different. For example WiFi is much more open, so logging is mostly useless. B)

[212eta]

Like Israel? :lol: :lol: :lol:

USA, too. ;)

[CODYQX4]

Let's quit the pissing match. There isn't a single nation on this planet not marching against privacy and the the rights of their citizens. NOT ONE.

[SnakeMasteR]

Data retention: German government tries again from June but not less informative.

[212eta]

There isn't a single nation on this planet

not marching against privacy

and

the the rights of their citizens.

NOT ONE.

'Putting all apples inside the same basket' is not fair, too:

There are countries which use "Terrorism" as an excuse for

fully violating their individuals' Privacy & Civil Rights.

and

there countries which, at least, offer some respect & protection

for their individuals' Privacy & Civil Rights.

[CODYQX4]

There isn't a single nation on this planet

not marching against privacy

and

the the rights of their citizens.

NOT ONE.

'Putting all apples inside the same basket' is not fair, too:

There are countries which use "Terrorism" as an excuse for

fully violating their individuals' Privacy & Civil Rights.

and

there countries which, at least, offer some respect & protection

for their individuals' Privacy & Civil Rights.

They "respect" it, until it's a problem to them, then things get hand-waved.

Don't forget that France passes laws to do what the NSA does, that several EU nations are passing pro-surveillance laws, and your politicians all agreed that the TPP must be kept secret from the entire world and that the peasants and rubes that call them citizens get no say on drafting it?

They're all corrupt, different means, same end. You don't think USA is the only country bombing stuff do you?

[212eta]

You don't think USA is the only country bombing stuff do you?

It starts in the USA, and then, it expands outside the USA.

Especially after 9/11,

all US governments have exercised pressure on

many countries to follow the US 'patterns'

when it comes to Privacy & Civil Rights.