Paolo Mengozzi, Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, has announced that Jehovah’s Witnesses must obtain the consent of the people they visit during their door-to-door visits if the members of this religious group wish to take notes, arguing that it would otherwise constitute a breach of privacy, Deutsche Welle reports.
The Advocate General however rejected the case after he concluded that the group is centrally organized, pointing out that prior to this dispute Jehovah’s Witnesses had provided printed forms for note-taking to its members.
According to DW, the lawsuit originated in Finland where local authorities took a dim view of Jehovah’s Witnesses taking notes on family members and the religious orientations of the people they visited without prior consent.