Data retention: Netherlands court strikes down law as breach of privacy

Judge in The Hague says country's regime for retaining telephone and internet users helps to solve crime but is too intrusive

A judge has scrapped the Netherlands' data retention law, saying that while it helps solve crime it also breaches the privacy of telephone and Internet users.

The ruling by a judge in The Hague followed a similar decision in April by the European Union's top court that wiped out EU data collection legislation it deemed too broad and offering too few privacy safeguards.