Financial Privacy & PSD2

Column by Bas Filippini,
Privacy First chairman 

The Dutch police is currently running a pilot with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-chips in license plates. According to an internal report, fraud with license plates is alleged to be a big problem. A chip which is compulsory for every motorist and which can be read from a distance through a 'read-out portal' at all times on public roads, would supposedly be THE solution. However, Privacy First perceives the setting up of a national control system to track all movements in public space of all 17 million Dutch citizens as a great danger to society. Privacy First finds a compulsory spychip disproportional and unfit for a decent democracy under the rule of law.

A comprehensive electronic control system

Enquiries by Privacy First reveal that the license plate chip is part of a much larger plan to equip all roads in the Netherlands with so-called 'portals' with measurement equipment. These portals would record all cars 24 hours a day and thus the movements of all 17 million citizens in public space. The Dutch Bicycle and Automobile Industry (RAI) Association strongly recommends the use of such a chip in a recently leaked report. Moreover, new regulations, which make chips inside cars compulsory alongside license plate chips, are being prepared by European Parliament. According to the basic concept, over 60 details would be recorded and stored in the European database EUCARIS. The chip should enable immobilizers as well as a digital license plate database, online license plate requests, a European general periodical car inspection and could eventually grow into a European system for travel and residence rights and taxes.

For the time being, the project is traded as a solution for identity fraud and license plate related crimes in order to get citizens 'aboard'. However, in Privacy First's eyes the system is yet another attempt to be able to record citizens in public space, either through the public transport chip card or chips in license plates and/or cars. A license plate chip for all citizens as if it were an ankle bracelet is a dogged principle in the current control oriented way of thinking by the Dutch government and now the European Parliament, too. Which role do Dutch lobbyists outside Dutch parliament play in order to introduce these chips from Dutch manufacturer NXP in all European license plates on the basis of a Europe measure, or, in other words, by way of a political U-turn? Privacy First thinks it's high time for some serious journalistic research into this.

Current license plate issues: facts or suggestions?

Upon enquiry into the real problem, none of the authorities have been able to provide any clarity about the presupposed 40,000 cases of fraud with license plates. Even though it's important for citizens to know if there's a problem, and how substantial this problem is, the figure cannot be confirmed. Therefore, the question is raised whether it's legally justified to introduce such a system. Even in case of an estimated 40,000 license plates (a mere 0.5 per mil of the total) it's dubious whether the privacy of the entire society should be sacrificed. It's also altogether unclear how high the costs of such a system would be, and how high the gains in respect of the current alleged costs of identity fraud and license plate related crimes.

Are there no alternative solutions to 'the problem'? From a recent letter from the Dutch minister of Security and Justice, Ard van der Steur, it emerges that fraud with license plates occurs less frequently already due to measures such as the controlled online management and issuing and returning of license plates, requirements for recognized manufacturers and laminators (laminate code) as well as the obligation to report stolen or lost blank plates or license plates that have not yet been issued. Moreover, in 2000, the system of duplicate codes on license plates was introduced. Furthermore, faulty license plates are entered in the database for Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) control.

Whether it concerns black boxes, chips for theft prevention in (as of yet only more expensive) cars, eCall for crash analyses (also manufactured by NXP), dashcams, speed checks or the network of ANPR cameras, time and again Privacy First sees a pattern whereby the Dutch government tries to turn the complete recording of travel behaviour of citizens into reality. Now we're about to witness a spychip in every license plate and in every car, through undemocratic EU law – the ICT industry lobbied a number of MEPs in order to circumvent national parliaments – and the central database EUCARIS.

Reasons to opt for free choice and very selective use of a passive chip

Privacy First sees many reasons to not give a control infrastructure the go-ahead:
• A lack of necessity due to the absence of concrete figures regarding the 'alleged problem' and the availability of alternative solution-paths and measures, some of which have already been introduced.
• A complete lack of a cost-benefit analysis of a control infrastructure. The only one benefitting from the system in the short term is the chip manufacturer: in the future, chip manufacturer NXP will spy on you alongside the NSA! Under American surveillance legislation that is.
• The alleged problem is not commensurate with the measure, which is entirely disproportional and in breach of Article 8 ECHR. In the fight against identity fraud with license plates, a passive registration chip suffices and citizens should be able to choose freely whether or not they want to have a RFID license plate.
• The system will enable real-time identification, monitoring and recording of all citizens, including lawyers, journalists, politicians, activists – a very serious privacy infringement
• A central infrastructure and central data storage are particularly susceptible to fraud. If criminals get access to databases containing all the travel and residency data of cars and people in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe, all floodgates will be opened.
• There is a risk of function creep. The tax authorities, police and other law enforcement agencies already have real-time access to systems that have been intended for entirely different purposes, think of systems related to car parks and speed checks.
• Eventually a system like that could be deployed to burden citizens even more in various ways, such as road pricing and other travel & residency taxes and sanction systems, something that is perhaps the underlying thought of this draconian measure. Meanwhile ANPR cameras are used to fine drivers of old diesel cars in inner cities. What's next?
• Permanently recording citizens in public space will lead to self-censorship and an 'apology society' in which citizens have to have an alibi all time to explain what they were doing in a given location and why they were there. Citizens are already pestered by the police and authorities as a result of their travel behaviour – complaints about this reach Privacy First ever more often.
• Finally, an infrastructure like this affects our constitutional democracy by inverting the legal principle that there should be a reasonable suspicion of a criminal offence to be tracked: every citizen would be considered a potential suspect and would be continuously spied on.

An over-zealous control oriented way of thinking by a distrustful government

The policies of the Dutch government are tenaciously moving in one direction only. New technological gadgets are mandatorily deployed to record all citizens and central systems are subsequently linked together. After that, a flawed law and its implementation are being proposed and finally there are talks with privacy organizations and guileless citizens, who are left behind in an electronic prison. Nowadays Big Data, data mining and profiling are the magic words in all government departments. It all concerns 'OPD' (other people's data) anyway, very convenient indeed. In this case we're talking about equipping each car with three chips and implementing and maintaining a comprehensive ICT network on all roads, a market potentially worth billions of euros. And in the relationship that is then being formed between the public and the government, the latter is a distrustful partner that wants to know who the former is communicating with and what its travel movements look like. It also wants to dispose of systems with which errors can be checked, but in the worst case, it deals carelessly with all the data it collects. Such a relation, based on mistrust, certainly isn't sustainable.

The Netherlands, a global pioneer in the field of privacy

Time and again people forget: it's the legitimate task of the government to protect and promote the privacy of its citizens! Privacy First wants the Netherlands to become a global pioneer in the field of privacy with advanced technologies, based on the principles of our constitutional democracy and independent of the misconceptions of the day and our incident-driven political system. After all, this is about a fundamental turnaround in the relationship with the public, something Privacy First is opposed to. We therefore challenge politics, industry and science to turn the Netherlands into THE nation that is at the vanguard of privacy matters while maintaining security, and not the other way around!

After years of legal proceedings against the storage of fingerprints under the Dutch Passport Act — one of the gravest privacy violations in the Netherlands — Privacy First and 19 co-plaintiffs were declared inadmissible by the Dutch Supreme Court.

Since May 2010, a large-scale lawsuit against the central storage of fingerprints under the Dutch Passport Act by Privacy First and 19 co-plaintiffs (Dutch citizens) has been under way. This so-called 'Passport Trial' was a civil case because with regard to the merits of the case, individual citizens were not able to turn to an administrative court.

Citizens could only go to an administrative court if they would first provoke an individual decision: an administrative refusal to issue a passport or ID card after an individual refusal to give one's fingerprints. Hence, they could only litigate on an administrative level if they were prepared to live without a passport or ID card for years.

Moreover, the provision in the Passport Act on the central storage of fingerprints (Article 4b) still hasn't entered into force. Therefore, the administrative courts were unauthorized to assess this provision. Moreover, contrary to other countries, a direct administrative appeal against Dutch law (Acts and statutes) isn't possible in the Netherlands.

Subsequently, an administrative court would only have been able to individually and indirectly ("exceptionally") assess this provision on the basis of higher privacy legislation after that same provision would have entered into force, that is to say, after the central storage (and exchange) of everyone's fingerprints would have become a fait accompli.

To prevent such a massive violation of privacy, only the civil courts were authorized to rule in the case of Privacy First et al. For many years civil courts have been the perfect type court for the direct assessment of national legislation on the basis of higher (privacy) legislation, even if the national legislation in question has not yet entered into force but does entail an imminent privacy violation.

Strong case

As a relevant foundation, Privacy First was able to take civil action in the general interest, on behalf of the Dutch population at large. Since the early 90s this is possible via a special procedure under Article 3:305a of the Dutch Civil Code: the so-called "action of general interest." Up until May 2010, when Privacy First et al. summoned the Dutch government, the Dutch Supreme Court seemed to have given the green light for this.

However, in July 2010, the Supreme Court disregarded its earlier case law by declaring that interest groups can only turn to a civil court if individual citizens cannot pursue legal proceedings before an administrative court. But in Privacy First's Passport Trial, citizens could not apply to an administrative court. So Privacy First et al. still had a very strong case. What's more, the admissibility criteria of the Supreme Court seemed not to apply to actions of general interest, but merely to 'group actions' that are organized on behalf of a specific group of people instead of the entire population.

Incomprehensible judgment

In February 2011, the district court of The Hague wrongly declared our Passport Trial inadmissible. This decision was subsequently appealed by Privacy First et al. Courtesy also of the pressure exerted by this appeal, the central (as well as municipal) storage of fingerprints was largely discontinued in the summer of 2011 and the taking of fingerprints for Dutch ID Cards was halted altogether at the start of 2014.

In February 2014, The Hague Court of Appeal declared Privacy First — in the general interest — admissible after all and judged that the central storage of fingerprints under the Passport Act was in violation of the right to privacy. The Dutch Minister of the Interior, Ronald Plasterk, was not amused and demanded an appeal in cassation before the Dutch Supreme Court.

Against all odds (as Privacy First had virtually all Dutch legislation, legislative history, case law and legal literature on its side), on May 22, 2015, the Dutch Supreme Court declared Privacy and its 19 co-plaintiffs inadmissible once more. According to the Supreme Court, the citizens can turn to an administrative court, which has also blocked the road to a civil court for Privacy First.

All this while in the last few years it had been established that the co-plaintiffs could not turn to an administrative court, at least not for the review of Article 4b of the Passport Act concerning the central storage of fingerprints. In innumerable administrative cases over the past few years, judges of various Dutch administrative courts have declined jurisdiction in this respect. That meant that for Privacy First as an interested organization, the road to an administrative court was equally blocked.

The fact that the Supreme Court rules as if that isn't so is simply incomprehensible. Furthermore, litigating citizens can neither be expected to get by without a passport for years, nor can they be expected to first let their privacy be violated (giving up fingerprints, even for storage) before a judge can determine whether this is legal. The fact that the Supreme Court seems to require this just the same is not just inconceivable (as well as in breach of its own case law) but also reprehensible.

Gap in the legal protection

The ruling by the Dutch Supreme Court creates a legal vacuum in the Netherlands: if citizens or organizations want massive and imminent privacy violations, such as the central storage of fingerprints under the Passport Act, to be reviewed, then they may not be able to turn to either a civil or an administrative court. This creates a gap in the legal protection that has been in place in the Netherlands over the past few decades.

The Supreme Court may now have passed on this case to the highest Dutch administrative court (the Council of State), but it's all but certain that the Council of State is able and still prepared to review the central storage of fingerprints under the Passport Act. In light of this, the Supreme Court should have waited for the ruling by the Council of State in four current and parallel administrative cases revolving around the Passport Act, prior to coming up with its ruling in Privacy First's Passport Trial. By not doing this, the Supreme Court has taken a huge risk, has prematurely stepped into the shoes of the Council of State and has put the Council of State under severe pressure.

If the Council of State were soon to judge differently than the Supreme Court (that is to say, if the Council of State would judge that it is equally unauthorized to rule in this matter), the two institutions would make an enormous blunder and would create a huge gap in the legal protection in the Netherlands, in contravention of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

Multiple ECHR violations

Privacy First et al. await the ruling of the Council of State with considerable anticipation. In the meantime, Privacy First et al. will already prepare to file a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on account of a breach of Article 8 ECHR (right to privacy) and Articles 6 and 13 EHCR (right to access to justice and an effective legal remedy). Despite the Kafkaesque anti-climax before the Dutch Supreme Court, a European conviction of the Netherlands would thus be on the cards once the complaint has been filed.

Read the entire judgment by the Dutch Supreme Court HERE (in Dutch).
Click HERE for our entire case file.
A similar version of this article was published on http://www.liberties.eu/en/news/bad-day-for-privacy-in-the-netherlands.

Today, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (EU Court) has come up with its long awaited judgment in four Dutch cases related to the storage of fingerprints under the Dutch Passport Act. The EU Court did so at the request of the Dutch Council of State. The EU Court deems the storage of fingerprints in databases to fall outside the scope of the European Passport Regulation. Therefore, the Court leaves the judicial review of such storage to national judges and the European Court of Human Rights.

Cause for the ruling

In all four Dutch cases citizens refused to give their fingerprints (and facial scans) when they requested a new Dutch passport or ID card. For this reason, their requests for a new passport or ID card were rejected. In 2012, their subsequent lawsuits ended up before the Dutch Council of State (Raad van State), which decided to ask the EU Court to clarify relevant European law (European Passport Regulation) before coming up with its own ruling. Subsequently, in 2013, the EU Court judged in a similar German case that the obligation to give ones fingerprints under the Passport Regulation is not unlawful. However, in this case, the EU Court failed to carry out a thorough review on the basis of the privacy-related legal requirements of necessity and proportionality. Moreover, the EU Court refused to merge the (more substantiated) Dutch cases with the German one, even though this was an explicit request from the Council of State. The ruling of the EU Court in the German case presented the Council of State (along with 300 million European citizens) with a disappointing fait accompli. During the case before the EU Court at the end of 2014, new arguments and new evidence in the Dutch cases fell on deaf ears: the EU Court wished not to deviate from the German case and appeared uninterested in the, by now, proven lack of necessity and proportionality of taking fingerprints (low passport fraud rates) and the enormous error rates when it comes to the biometric verification of fingerprints (25-30%). In that sense, the current ruling of the EU Court comes as no surprise to the Privacy First Foundation.

Bright spot: ID card without fingerprints

The only chink of light in the ruling of the EU Court is the confirmation that national ID cards don't fall within the scope of the European Passport Regulation. The Dutch government seemed to have already been anticipating this judgment by ending the compulsory taking of fingerprints for ID cards as of January 20, 2014. In this respect, the ruling of the EU court doesn't bring any change to the current situation in the Netherlands, but it does confirm that the introduction of ID cards without fingerprints at the start of 2014 was the right choice of the Dutch government. Most other EU Member States have never actually had ID cards with fingerprints; under the European Passport Act, the compulsory taking of fingerprints only applied to passports. The fact that in between 2009 and 2014 the Netherlands wished to go further than the rest of Europe, was therefore at its own risk.

EU Court leaves judgement on database storage of fingerprints to national judges and the European Court of Human Rights

The EU Court in Luxemburg rules that possible storage and use of fingerprints in databases doesn't fall within the scope of the European Passport Regulation and leaves the judicial review of such storage to national judges and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. However, in various (over a dozen) pending individual cases in the Netherlands against the Dutch Passport Act, administrative judges have so far always decided that such judicial review falls outside of their powers, as the relevant provisions of the Passport Act have not (yet) entered into force. It's now up to the Council of State to adjudicate on this matter. At the same time, the Dutch Supreme Court is currently looking into the collective civil Passport Trial of Privacy First and 19 co-plaintiffs (citizens), where such judicial review has already successfully been carried out by the Hague Court of Appeal and is now before the Supreme Court. In February 2014, the Hague Court of Appeal rightly judged that central storage of fingerprints is in breach of the right to privacy. In that sense the case of Privacy First is in line with the EU Court: review of database storage by a national judge, possibly followed by the European Court of Human Rights. Current individual cases before the Council of State may soon be resumed before the European Court of Human Rights as well. Privacy First hopes that this complex interaction between different judges will lead to the desired results with regard to privacy: a repeal of the taking and storage of fingerprints for passports!

Read the entire ruling of the EU Court HERE.

Update 17 April 2015: unfortunately, the ruling of the EU Court led to a lot of misleading media reporting in the Netherlands through Dutch press agency ANP (for example in Dutch national newspaper Volkskrant). Better comments can be found at the website of SOLV Attorneys, in this blog post by British professor Steve Peers and in Dutch newspaper Telegraaf, translated below:

"Monstrosity.

A database with fingerprints, relinquished by people who request a new passport, seems to have come a step closer. This could be deduced from a ruling of the European Court of Justice.

The Council of State asked the judges in Luxembourg for an opinion on four cases of citizens who refused to give their fingerprints. They appealed not getting a passport because of this. In a similar German case, the EU Court ruled that the compulsory taking of fingerprints isn't unlawful under European law.

Yesterday, the EU Court ruled in the Dutch case that the storage of fingerprints is a responsibility of the Member States. So the national judge will have to review this. As the only Member State, the Netherlands wanted a central register of fingerprints: a register that would even be accessible by secret services. The Passport Act that regulated this has not yet entered into force and last year the Hague Court of Appeal ruled that the central storage is in breach of the right to privacy.

Research points out that such a database brings along many risks, varying from security leaks to improper use and criminal manipulation. This proves that the whole system is a monstrosity that should never be introduced." 
Source: Telegraaf 17 April 2015, p. 2.

"A Dutch court on Wednesday struck down a law requiring telecoms and Internet service providers to store their clients' private phone and email data, saying it breached European privacy rules.

"The judge ruled that data retention is necessary and effective to combat serious crime. Dutch legislation however infringes on the individual's right to privacy and the protection of personal data," the Hague district court said.

"The law therefore contravenes the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union," the court said in a statement.

Seven groups and organisations including privacy watchdog Privacy First and the Dutch Association of Journalists dragged the Dutch state to court last month over the issue.

The Dutch court's decision comes after the European Court of Justice in April 2014 struck down the European Union law that forced telecoms operators to store private phone and email data for up to two years, judging it too invasive, despite its usefulness in combating terrorism.

Advocate General Pedro Cruiz Villalon declared the 2006 legislation illegal and told the European Union's 28 member states to take the necessary steps to withdraw it.

The 2006 directive called for EU states to store individuals' Internet, mobile telephone and text metadata -- the time, date, duration and destination, but not the content of the communications themselves -- for six months to two years.

This data could then be accessed by national intelligence and police agencies.

"The privacy rights of Dutch citizens were violated en masse by this mass surveillance," said Vincent Boehre of Privacy First.

"Privacy First fights for a society in which innocent civilians do not have to feel that they are being constantly monitored," he said on the organisation's website in response to the ruling.

"The verdict of the Hague tribunal is an important step in that direction," said Boehre."

Source: http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/international/326442/dutch-court-nixes-data-storage-law-says-privacy-breached, 12 March 2015.

"La justice néerlandaise a annulé mercredi une loi exigeant le stockage de données personnelles, assurant que bien qu'utile à la lutte contre le crime, le texte violait la vie privée des utilisateurs des réseaux téléphoniques et d'internet.

"Les juges ont estimé que le stockage de données était nécessaire et efficace pour combattre le crime, mais la législation néerlandaise est contraire aux droits des personnes à une vie privée et à la protection de leurs données personnelles", a indiqué le tribunal de La Haye dans un communiqué.

"La loi est donc contraire à la Charte des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne", a ajouté le tribunal.

Sept organisations, dont l'organisation de défense de la vie privée Privacy First et l'Association néerlandaise des Journalistes, avaient entamé une action contre l?État le mois dernier.

Cette décision des juges intervient environ un an après une décision de la justice européenne, qui avait imposé en avril 2014 une révision de la législation sur la conservation des données personnelles, la jugeant "disproportionnée" malgré son utilité dans la lutte contre le terrorisme.

La directive en question datait de 2006 et exigeait des opérateurs de télécoms et des fournisseurs d'accès internet de stocker les données des communications téléphoniques ou de courriels pendant six mois à deux ans.

Étaient donc conservées les métadonnées desdites communications, comme l'heure, la date, la durée et la destination, mais pas leur teneur.

Ces données pouvaient ensuite être consultées par les services de renseignement ou la police.

"Les droits à une vie privée des citoyens néerlandais ont été violés en masse par cette surveillance", a affirmé Vincent Boehre, le directeur des opérations de Privacy First, cité dans un communiqué publié sur le site internet de l'organisation.

Privacy First "lutte pour une société dans laquelle des civils innocents ne doivent pas se sentir comme s'ils étaient constamment surveillés", a-t-il ajouté, soulignant que ce jugement est "une étape importante dans cette direction"."

Source: http://www.leparisien.fr/high-tech/la-justice-neerlandaise-annule-une-loi-sur-les-donnees-personnelles-11-03-2015-4595081.php, 11 March 2015.

"A Dutch court struck down a law requiring telecoms and Internet service providers to store their clients' private phone and e-mail data, saying it breached European privacy rules.

"The judge ruled that data retention is necessary and effective to combat serious crime. Dutch legislation however infringes on the individual's right to privacy and the protection of personal data," the Hague district court said.

"The law therefore contravenes the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union," the court said in a statement.

Seven groups and organisations including privacy watchdog Privacy First and the Dutch Association of Journalists dragged the Dutch state to court last month over the issue.

The Dutch court's decision comes after the European Court of Justice in April 2014 struck down the European Union law that forced telecoms operators to store private phone and e-mail data for up to two years, judging it too invasive, despite its usefulness in combating terrorism.

Advocate General Pedro Cruiz Villalon declared the 2006 legislation illegal and told the European Union's 28 member states to take the necessary steps to withdraw it.

The 2006 directive called for EU states to store individuals' Internet, mobile telephone and text metadata – the time, date, duration and destination, but not the content of the communications themselves – for six months to two years.

This data could then be accessed by national intelligence and police agencies.

"The privacy rights of Dutch citizens were violated en masse by this mass surveillance," said Vincent Boehre of Privacy First.

"Privacy First fights for a society in which innocent civilians do not have to feel that they are being constantly monitored," he said on the organisation's website in response to the ruling.

"The verdict of the Hague tribunal is an important step in that direction," said Boehre."

Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/Tech/Tech-News/2015/03/12/Dutch-court-nixes-data-storage-law-says-privacy-breached/, 12 March 2015.

"A Dutch court on Wednesday struck down a law requiring telecoms and Internet service providers to store their clients' private phone and email data, saying it breached European privacy rules.

"The judge ruled that data retention is necessary and effective to combat serious crime. Dutch legislation however infringes on the individual's right to privacy and the protection of personal data," the Hague district court said.

"The law therefore contravenes the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union," the court said in a statement.

Seven groups and organisations including privacy watchdog Privacy First and the Dutch Association of Journalists dragged the Dutch state to court last month over the issue.

The Dutch court's decision comes after the European Court of Justice in April 2014 struck down the European Union law that forced telecoms operators to store private phone and email data for up to two years, judging it too invasive, despite its usefulness in combating terrorism.

Advocate General Pedro Cruiz Villalon declared the 2006 legislation illegal and told the European Union's 28 member states to take the necessary steps to withdraw it.

The 2006 directive called for EU states to store individuals' Internet, mobile telephone and text metadata - the time, date, duration and destination, but not the content of the communications themselves - for six months to two years.

This data could then be accessed by national intelligence and police agencies.

"The privacy rights of Dutch citizens were violated en masse by this mass surveillance," said Vincent Boehre of Privacy First.

"Privacy First fights for a society in which innocent civilians do not have to feel that they are being constantly monitored," he said on the organisation's website in response to the ruling.

"The verdict of the Hague tribunal is an important step in that direction," said Boehre."

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/tech/world-updates/494578/dutch-court-nixes-data-storage-law-says-privacy-breached, 12 March 2015.

"A judge scrapped the Netherlands' data retention law Wednesday, saying that while it helps solve crimes it also breaches the privacy of telephone and Internet users.

The ruling followed a similar decision in April by the European Union's top court that wiped out EU data collection legislation it deemed too broad and offering too few privacy safeguards.

The Security and Justice Ministry said it was considering an appeal.

Under the Dutch law, telephone companies were required to store information about all fixed and mobile phone calls for a year. Internet providers had to store information on their clients' Internet use for six months.

The written judgment by Judge G.P. van Ham conceded that scrapping the data storage "could have far-reaching consequences for investigating and prosecuting crimes" but added that this could not justify the privacy breaches the law entails.

The judge did not set a deadline for disposing of the data.

Privacy First, one of the organizations that took the government to court, said the ruling "will bring to an end years of massive privacy breaches" in the Netherlands.

The government said after last year's European court ruling that it would amend its law.

In a written statement, the Security and Justice Ministry said it regretted the court's decision.

"Providers are no longer required to store data for investigations," the statement said. "The ministry is seriously concerned about the effect this will have on fighting crime.""

Source: http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1274008-judge-overturns-dutch-data-retention-legislation, 11 March 2015.

"A Dutch court Wednesday handed a victory to privacy advocates by striking down a data-retention law that gives the government easy access to telecommunication data.

The District court of The Hague said the law, which requires telecom providers to collect and store data for as long as 12 months, violates citizens' right to privacy and the right to protection of personal data. "The judge finds that this violation is not limited to what is strictly necessary," it said.

The ruling, which can still be appealed, is a blow to the Dutch government, which said the law was important to fight terrorism and organized crime. But it is a victory for privacy advocates, journalists and criminal lawyers in the Netherlands who argued that the law was unconstitutional because data are kept regardless of whether citizens are a suspect or not.

A spokesman for the Dutch ministry of Security and Justice wasn't immediately available to comment on the ruling.

The court's decision is effective immediately, which means that telecommunication companies are no longer obligated to store and collect data.

Most of the big providers weren't immediately available for comment, with some saying their legal experts need time to assess the implications.

"There are multiple layers in this ruling. We need to know how we should interpret it," a Tele2 spokesman said.

The lawsuit was the latest in a decade of legal challenges to data-retention across Europe. First adopted under an European Union directive dating to 2006, such rules generally require telecom providers to collect and store data about their users' mobile phone traffic and location for as long as two years.

But in several countries, including Germany, data-retention laws have since been tossed out on privacy grounds. And last spring, the European Union Court of Justice, the bloc's highest court, struck down the underlying directive requiring countries to implement the rules in the first place, saying it didn't have sufficient safeguards for individual's right to privacy.

In the Netherlands, where a data-retention law was enacted in 2009, the Dutch government has shown reluctance to scrap the law for security reasons. (...)"

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/11/dutch-court-strikes-down-countrys-data-retention-law/, 12 March 2015.

"A judge scrapped the Netherlands' data retention law Wednesday, saying that while it helps solve crimes it also breaches the privacy of telephone and Internet users.

The ruling by a judge in The Hague followed a similar decision in April by the European Union's top court that wiped out EU data collection legislation it deemed too broad and offering too few privacy safeguards.

The Security and Justice Ministry said it was considering an appeal.

Under the Dutch law, telephone companies were required to store information about all fixed and mobile phone calls for a year. Internet providers had to store information on their clients' Internet use for six months.

The written judgment by Judge G.P. van Ham conceded that scrapping the data storage "could have far-reaching consequences for investigating and prosecuting crimes" but added that this could not justify the privacy breaches the law entails.

The judge did not set a deadline for disposing of the data.

Privacy First, one of the organizations that took the government to court, said the ruling "will bring to an end years of massive privacy breaches" in the Netherlands.

The government said after last year's European court ruling that it would amend its law.

In a written statement, the Security and Justice Ministry said it regretted the court's decision.

"Providers are no longer required to store data for investigations," the statement said. "The ministry is seriously concerned about the effect this will have on fighting crime.""

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11415850, 12 March 2015.