The Federal Constitutional Court today overturned a law requiring the retention of certain communications data, describing it as "...an especially grave intrusion," reports the Associated Press. The law required six-month retention of phone and e-mail data for use in counterterrorism efforts. It was unpopular with Germans; 35,000 had appealed for it to be overturned and Data Protection Commissioner Peter Schaar had also spoken out against it. In its decision, the court said that such retention violated Germans' constitutional rights and failed to balance privacy rights against the need to provide security, the report states.
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