PARIS (Reuters) – National government and their spying agencies cannot have unchecked access to phone and internet users’ data, the European Union’s top court said on Tuesday.
In a much-awaited court ruling, the court said that the general and indiscriminate retention of such data can only be allowed when governments face a “serious threat to national security”.
In this kind of situation, the full access to phone and internet users’ data should be limited to a period that is “strictly necessary”, it said.
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Alison Williams)