Privacy and Law: Recent German High Court Ruling

An important ruling on data retention by German Federal court that sets the politicians and beaurocrats straight.

Germany's highest court on Tuesday overturned a law allowing authorities to retain data on telephone calls and e-mail traffic to help fight terrorism and crime. The Federal Constitution Court ruled that major changes needed to be made to a 2008 law ordering data on calls made from mobile or fixed-line telephones and e-mail traffic to be kept for six months for possible access by law enforcement agencies.

The judges said the data storage was not secure enough and that it was not sufficiently clear what it would be used for. A record number of almost 35,000 people, including current Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, had originally brought the case to the court. The law stems from a European Union directive.

Here's in UK, privacy is and has been going down the drain. Gordon Brown wants more CCTV and bigger databases. The sad thing: I think he has convinced himself that these measures help. There is no theater like security theater. It keeps us unprofitably but happily occupied, like frogs taking a sauna in a kettle.