The law implementing the most privacy-invasive instrument ever adopted by the European Union was enforced in the Portuguese legal order until the Portuguese Constitutional Court ruled otherwise on 19 April 2022. The general and indiscriminate retention of data by providers of electronic communications services, and subsequent access thereto by public authorities, was allowed to continue for eight years after the landmark Digital Rights Ireland ruling of the Court of Justice that annulled the contentious Data Retention Directive. This chapter traces this massive breach of the fundamental rights of almost the entire Portuguese population back to a systemic failure of all relevant national stakeholders in the executive, legislative and judicial branches.