Data retention and the use of spy software in Hungary
September 17, 2014 - Éva Tormássy.
After a series of coordinated suicide attacks in Madrid in 2004 and in central London in 2005, the European Union reacted by passing the so called Data Retention Directive in 2006. Hungary as a member state of the European Union was obliged to introduce mandatory telecommunication data retention – that is, the retention of data generated or processed through the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or by public communications networks. As a result of the Data Retention Directive, all telecommunication service providers in Hungary have to collect and store socalled metadata, or data which shows who, when, where and with whom anyone tried to communicate or successfully communicated via email or phone.