The European Court of Justice has ruled that countries cannot make phone or internet providers indiscriminately monitor and retain customers’ internet and phone data, even to fight crime. The judgement moves the EU further away from countries such as the US and China, which integrate mass surveillance into their domestic security arrangements. However, the Court also said that there may be exceptions to this rule when a country is facing “a serious threat to national security that proves to be genuine and present or forseeable”. The Court was addressing laws that require phone and internet companies “to carry out the general and indiscriminate retention of traffic data and location data as a preventive measure”. Facebook has applied to the High Court for judicial review of Ms Dixon’s order.

Source: Irish Independent October 06, 2020 14:03 UTC