Governments seek to legalise data retention

EU governments want to introduce rules allowing the storage of personal data for security purposes, a draft memo has revealed.

In the memo, the Estonian presidency of the European Council asks other EU countries to consider ways of legalising data retention for the purposes of stopping crime. The memo was leaked by the civil rights NGO Statewatch on 1 August.

The document reveals that governments are attempting to bypass a landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice in April 2014, which deemed that an EU law requiring data retention was illegal.