Earth: Mostly Harmless

Gehen wir nach Deutschland!

March 20, 2008 on 12:28 am |
Categories: Uncategorized

Some sensible rulings from the German Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Consitutional Court - gotta love those compound words) on data privacy and state surveillance:

Germany’s highest court apparently had memories of Nazi and Stasi abuses in mind when it ruled on a series of surveillance and data privacy cases this year. In the most recent ruling, made today in Karlsruhe, the Constitutional Court found that Germany’s recent data retention directive targeting ISPs and telephone companies was problematic; going forward, the data retention will still be mandatory, but the information can only be accessed with a warrant and only for serious crimes.

Also from the same article:

The ruling follows other, similar rulings this year. Last week, the court also struck down indiscriminate license plate monitoring in the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse, saying that authorities needed to have a reason for running people’s plates. The court hoped to prevent the creation of automated systems that track movement around the country.

Via Ars Technica.