The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that police can access mobile phone data in connection with minor crimes as well as serious crimes. The ruling, published on Friday, October 4th, states that although police access to personal data stored on a mobile telephone “may constitute a serious, or even particularly serious interference with the fundamental rights” of the owner of the phone, access should “not necessarily” be “limited to the fight against serious crime.”
The ruling goes on to say that police—except in urgent cases—should only be able to gather the information stored on a mobile phone once they receive authorisation by a court or an independent authority, and the owner of the phone must be informed of the reasons for the investigation.
The ruling stems from a case in Austria. The Austrian police seized the mobile phone of the recipient of a parcel that contained 85 grams of cannabis. The police attempted to gather data from the phone, but did not have authorization from the prosecutor’s office or a court, and did not inform the suspect. That person challenged the seizure of his phone in an Austrian court, and only during those proceedings did he become aware of the attempts to unlock his phone.
The Austrian court turned to the ECJ to determine whether the actions taken by the police were compatible with EU law. The Austrian court observed that the aforementioned crime constitutes only a minor offence, which is punishable by a maximum of one year’s imprisonment.
The ECJ emphasised that “access to all the data contained in a mobile telephone may constitute a serious, or even particularly serious, interference with the fundamental rights of the data subject,” however, “to consider that only the fight against serious crime” could justify gaining access to data “would unduly limit the investigative powers of the competent authorities.”
The European court concludes by saying that national parliaments and national courts must “strike a fair balance” between, on the one hand, the “needs of the investigation in the context of combating crime” and, on the other, “the fundamental rights to private life and the protection of personal data.”
The ECJ ruling could have far-reaching consequences and embolden national authorities of EU member states to gain access to their citizens’ personal information. Verdicts like these only enforce the belief that the EU is encroaching on people’s rights.
