And another well-deserved kick in the ass of Merkel: Data retention unlawful, regards from your Court of Justice of the European Union.

Angela Merkel, what do you not
understand about Just Go?

She keeps on fucking up. Da babe from the DDR. Mutti, Plunse. This decision right after the Berlin Attack. Any person with a minimum sense of style and dignity would step down and fuck off into the sunset. Not this clumsy Mädchen.

The way of the German privacy warrior

Former justice minister doesn’t buy the liberty vs. security argument.

TUTZING, Germany — Few German politicians know the country’s ambiguous relationship with state surveillance better than former justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.

The 64-year-old can claim a role in bringing down three major laws in her career to protect citizen’s rights, learning the lessons from bitter battles at home, against the conservative interior ministry, and in Brussels, against current European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström.

Now, she’s suiting up again to topple Germany’s latest data-retention law, passed last November, which requires phone and Internet providers to store call records, IP addresses and other identification records, without any suspicion of wrongdoing by users.

Privacy, a human right that is insidiously undermined by this new law,” she says during an interview. “I can’t just sit here and watch that. This is why I will do everything I can do to topple it.”

She can relax now.

Victory! EU court rules that indiscriminate data retention is not permissible

Brussels, BE — Earlier today, Thomas von Danwitz, Judge Rapporteur of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), issued his judgment on the joint data retention cases known as Tele2 Sverige and Davis and Others. The outcome: EU member states may not impose a general obligation to retain data on providers of electronic communications services, and when law enforcement has access to retained data, they must ensure independent oversight mechanisms and remedy. This is a critically important victory for fundamental rights in the EU.

“This ruling reaffirms that existing general data retention schemes are not proportionate”, said Fanny Hidvegi, European Policy Manager at Access Now. “Member states are skirting an increasing amount of responsibility under various exceptions, be it ‘national security’ or ‘legitimate interest’. Access Now is pleased that the court did not embrace the false dichotomy of privacy versus security, and once again enforced the proper standards and explicit safeguards for fundamental rights. Judges engaged in ongoing cases all around Europe should follow the clear lines the court has drawn today against general data retention”.

Full article here