The German Federal Constitutional Court has decided on a data mining case (German text).
Following the 9/11 attacks, German police used data on all residents for data mining with criteria like "age between 18 and 40", "male", "student or former student", "islamic religion", "came from certain countries listed".
The data mining project ended with no meaningful result.
The plaintiff in this case, who was in the group described, objected to the measure. While he lost his case in the lower courts, the Federal Constitutional Court reversed and held that data mining is only legal if there is a concrete danger.
The abstract possibility of terror, which might be a permanent state for a long time, is not enough to justify the massive restriction of all residents' right to control their personal data.
This decision references similar decisions on the right to confidential telecommunication. It shows again that the Surveillance Directive has not much of a chance to survive scrutiny by the Court.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at May 24, 2006 11:05 AM