Mexican court strikes down cellphone personal date registry

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s Supreme Court has struck down a 2021 law that would have required cellphone companies to collect data like fingerprints or eye scans from customers. The court ruled Monday the law was too invasive of personal liberty. Cellphones in Mexico are often used in kidnappings and extortions, sometimes by inmates calling from prisons. However, such calls usually made from stolen, pre-paid or “burner” phones that the law wouldn’t have affected much. The law was passed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party. It was the latest in a string of failed efforts to reign in phone crimes.