The
European Commission made it clear on September 16, 2015, that
the issue of whether to introduce national data retention laws is a
national decision. The European Commission has no intention of
going back on this statement or reopening old discussions. In the
absence of EU rules, Member States are free to maintain their
current data retention systems or set up new ones, provided, of
course, that they comply with basic principles under EU law, such
as those contained in the ePrivacy Directive.
The previous
Data Retention Directive was adopted in the context of the
terrorist attacks in London and in Madrid that made it crucial to
harmonize national provisions regarding data retention for the
purpose of prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of
criminal offences. The directive required telecommunication and
Internet service providers to retain traffic and location data, as
well as related data to identify the user, for up to two years, and
to provide
