The Court of Justice of the EU has ruled the Data Retention Directive is invalid. The court believes that “by requiring the retention of those data and by allowing the competent national authorities to access those data, the directive interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data.” The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) welcomed the ruling. “We consider this a landmark judgment that limits the blanket government surveillance of communications data … permitted under the directive,” the EDPS wrote. Simon McGarr, a lawyer for Digital Rights Ireland said, “The court has rejected the principle of mass surveillance of EU citizens without suspicion and says it’s incompatible with the charter of fundamental rights.” Hunton & Williams points to five main criticisms the court had with the directive.
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