German intelligence service must destroy telephony metadata with foreign countries

The German Bundesnachrichtendienst must destroy the metadata of intercepted international calls based on the ruling in a lawsuit. The intelligence service relied on the fact that the data had been anonymized, but the judge found that insufficient.

The Bundesverwaltungsgericht in Leipzig ruled on Thursday that the storage of the data by BND has no basis in the law. The case was brought by Reporters without Borders. That organization argued that the BND’s Veras analysis system was processing data from confidential conversations without foundation.

The intelligence service defended itself that the metadata is anonymized so that the data cannot be traced back to a single person. Reporters without Borders, however, claimed that metadata, such as from which device and at what time people are called, can often be traced back to the individual level.

The judge agreed and determined that the storage of the data thereby violates the fundamental right to confidential communication, the Fernmelde secretnis. Storage on the basis of specific search terms is allowed under certain circumstances, but there is no basis for a general analysis of telephone traffic. The BND has been using Veras since 2002 for the storage and analysis of conversations with foreign countries, writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung.