EUROPEAN UNION
Privacy: 1, Government: 0
The European Court of Justice ruled Tuesday that EU nations cannot collect mass mobile and internet data on citizens, dealing a blow to governments trying to monitor their citizens through controversial surveillance tools, CNBC reported.
The verdict said that EU law dictates that states cannot force internet and phone companies to conduct “general and indiscriminate transmission or retention of traffic data and location data.”
The EU’s highest court added that the exception is for reasons of national security, as long as the surveillance is approved by a judge or an independent administrative body.
The case was initiated by privacy rights campaigners who complained that surveillance practices in Britain, France and Belgium went too far and violated human rights.
The ECJ verdict is the latest in a string of decisions to limit the power of EU governments to keep tabs on their citizens.
In July, the court struck down an agreement that allowed American tech companies to send European user data to the United States: It argued that US laws don’t protect the privacy of EU citizens and that these citizens have no effective way of challenging American government surveillance.
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