Ahmet Gürhan Kartal
21 December 2016•Update: 21 December 2016
By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON
The telecom companies can not be forced to retain all their customers’ data, the European Court of Justice ruled Wednesday.
The decision came as a blow to the U.K. government’s “data retention legislation”, which was also known as the ‘snooper’s charter’.
The "general and indiscriminate retention" of data by a government is against the EU law, unless it is used to fight against serious crime, the top Europe court said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said she was disappointed by the latest verdict.
The U.K. law permits authorities to be able to access all communication data, including text messages, by asking firms to store them for a maximum period of 12 months.
The court challenge was filed by a number of British politicians, including David Davis, the Brexit minister (then-backbencher from the Conservative Party).
According to the U.K. law, which became effective last month, telecom operators and internet service providers require to keep data such as telephone logs and records of visited websites.
The decision further said the indiscriminate retention exceeds the limits in a democratic society.
“Legislation prescribing a general and indiscriminate retention of data … exceeds the limits of what is strictly necessary and cannot be considered to be justified within a democratic society,” it added.
