Czech Republic: Constitutional Court Upholds User Privacy In E-Comms

A legal duty to store and retain certain data relating to e-communications users has been overturned by the Constitutional Court.

Providers of public communication services will need to review their current retention policies to ensure that they do not retain a wider scope of data and for a longer period than is permitted after the legislation was cancelled as of 12 April 2011.

Under the Act on Electronic Communications, providers of fixed and mobile telephones, internet and other public communications services were obliged to retain certain data about their users for between 6 and 12 months.

In practice, the data stored by providers included:

• the source, destination, date, time, duration and type of all phone calls, whether successful or unsuccessful