Digital Rights Ireland challenge data retention laws

Digital Rights Ireland has started a High Court action against the Irish Government challenging new European and Irish laws requiring the retention of telecoms and internet traffic data retention.

ORG campaigned strongly against the Data Retention Directive, particularly when the music industry said they wanted a piece of the action, but once the Directive was passed, there’s been little to do here in the UK but sit and wait for government implementation. Although Germany’s Bundestag have voiced serious doubts that the Directive could be implemented “in a constitutional manner”, it has already been established that their constitution is subordinate to European Law. It’s therefore unlikely we’ll see a challenge from that direction.

This means that DRI’s action is profoundly important for everyone who values their privacy, because if they win, it will mean an end to data retention in the UK and Europe.

You can read more on the DRI blog, and press release.