“Reservoir data storage,” “advance data saving.” When a government collects and saves people’s personal communication data in advance, without cause, before needing the data.
Germany is in trouble with the EU for not implementing the EU rule that telecommunications data should be collected without cause and saved for six months. German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU) supports the six-month EU plan but many other German parties and politicians do not. The German Supreme Constitutional Court found that the EU rule conflicts with German law.
Update on 18 Dec 2012: Spiegel-Online reports that more than 11,000 concerned Austrians, including telecommunications employees and Carinthian civil servants, have asked the Austrian constitutional court to postpone deliberating on Austria’s new data privacy law until the European Court of Justice can determine whether the EU rule violates basic human rights. By law, communications data in Austria have had to be saved for six months since 1 Apr 2012. The EU rule was passed in 2006. The Irish High Court asked the European Court of Justice to examine the rule in mid-July 2012, and it may happen in 2013.
