European Court Ruling Threatens Telecoms Data Users

In a decision which could have far-reaching consequences for new areas of research and marketing, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) last week issued a judgement removing the legal foundation for telecoms providers' retention of individual customer traffic and location data.

The landmark decision, which slipped through last Tuesday 8th April 2014 with relatively little fanfare, invalidates the 2006 EU Data Retention Directive, which permitted companies to retain the data and national authorities to access it. The latest judgement, no doubt reflecting the prevailing mood in the EU following the recent NSA scandal, concluded that the Directive 'disproportionally interferes with the fundamental rights of European citizens to private life and protection of personal data', according to www.mondaq.com .

At the moment it's unclear what telecoms firms and governments will do about the change, with no specific initiative underway to force companies to stop the collection - however, the potential threat to geolocation and targeting services is obvious.

The EU's proposals for upgrading its data protection rules have become one of the longest running sagas in the Brussels-based body's history, with constant amendments, rewrites and strong opposition postponing the day of its arrival. In the meantime, however, the Union continues to talk a hard line on privacy issues. Six months ago, its Civil Liberties Committee agreed rulings which could result in fines of up to EUR 100m (£84.8m) for Internet giants such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo!