Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) Thurs. challenged national and EU da...
Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) Thurs. challenged national and EU data retention laws requiring storage of Internet and phone traffic data. A 2005 Irish law requires telcos and ISPs to store data up to 3 years, allowing access without court…
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order or other safeguards -- violating fundamental human rights, DRI said. The Irish measure defies the Irish Constitution and national and EU data protection laws, it said. DRI attacked the EU data retention directive on the ground that it breaches human rights granted by the European Convention of Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and said it will ask the Irish courts to refer the directive to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for an assessment of its validity. If successful, the challenges will sap data retention laws in all EU states and overturn the directive, DRI said. Its High Court case is backed by privacy and civil liberties groups, including the U.K. Open Rights Group, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy International. Ireland’s govt. itself challenged the EU data retention directive, but not on privacy grounds. The suit puts DRI in the unusual position of fighting a domestic law while siding with the govt. on an EU law, its spokesman told us.