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Deutsch: Deutscher Bundesverfassungsgerichtshof entscheidet über Zugriff auf p...

According to the decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) on 24 February 2012, the law enforcement authorities must no longer request personal data unless justified by special conditions.

The court found that certain provisions in the present Federal Telecommunications Act concerning the disclosure of telecom user data to law enforcement agencies violated the German constitution and decided that the requests of personal data by the law enforcement authorities were not "proportionate", being thus in violation of the constitutional right to informational self-determination.

For instance, the usual practice to determine the owner of IP addresses on the basis of the Telecommunications Act, is a violation of telecommunications secrecy.

Therefore, strict conditions must apply when law enforcement authorities and intelligence agencies ask telecommunications service providers (which may include hospitals and hotels) to turn over certain user data such as passwords and PIN codes.

The decision is a result of a case initially brought to court by data privacy activists in 2005. "It's a major success that the court has barred excessive identification by the state of internet users, and that it is protecting the anonymity of our internet usage," stated Patrick Breyer, one of the plaintiffs.

The Court's decision was welcomed by privacy advocates and organisations. "The judgment makes it clear that access is permitted on telecommunications data only while maintaining the secrecy of telecommunications and the legislature has yet to do some homework. This includes the provision of information from dynamic IP addresses," stated the federal commissioner for data protection Peter Schaar.

The Court requested the Federal Government to revise of the present provisions of the German Federal Telecommunications Act by 30 June 2013.

Bundesverfassungsgericht Press Release (only in German, 24.02.2012) http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/pressemitteilungen/bvg12-013.ht...

Privacy advocates welcome the Constitutional Court decision on the Telecommunications Act (only in German, 24.02.2012) http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Datenschuetzer-begruessen-TKG-E...

German court rules police access to passwords is unconstitutional (24.02.2012)
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1692676.php/Ger...

Constitutional Court judges give private lessons in data protection (only in German, 24.02.2012)
http://www.heise.de/ct/meldung/Verfassungsrichter-geben-Nachhilfeunter...