Court limits access to mobile phone and computer information

The Spanish Supreme Court has announced it is to limit the access that police and prosecutors have to mobile phone and computer data. They will no longer be able to ask the phone and ISP companies directly for such data, but will have to turn first to the Instruction Judge in the case concerned.

The Supreme Court ruling made on Tuesday dates from a lower court in 2007 and is a literal understanding of the data protection law for communications.

It’s not clear whether this ruling will affect cases already open and under investigation, such as the famous Gürtel case for example.