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1title: German constitutional court creates new fundamental right to digital privacy
2date: 2008-02-27 00:00:00
3updated: 2009-04-18 19:12:41
4author: presse
5tags: update, pressemitteilung
6
7Today, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, flatly rejected North Rhine-Westphalia’s Constitutional Protection Act, which is designed to permit the so-called online search of computers and other IT systems.
8
9<!-- TEASER_END -->
10
11The Karlsruhe judges made it clear with their decision that the society
12has a legitimate interest in the confidentiality and integrity of the IT
13systems it increasingly depends on and that freedom of thought also
14exists if ideas are stored on to a computer. The Chaos Computer Club
15(CCC) has been demanding this right to digital privacy for over 25
16years. The protection of the digital self not only affects computers but
17also telephones and other networked devices. “We can only hope that the
18politicians who only know the internet from print-outs don't need
19another quarter of a century until they have taken this new fundamental
20right on board”, Dirk Engling, the CCC’s spokesman, commented.
21
22The constitutional court judges point out in their oral reasons for the
23judgement that the systematic tapping of communication data and the
24creation of personality profiles are serious violations of basic rights.
25“We assume that this judgement will also apply to the constitutional
26review of the Data Retention Act”, Dirk Engling said. Several
27constitutional complaints have been filed against the data retention
28that came to effect in January.
29
30“The judges have given the lawmakers a slap in the face for allowing all
31kinds of information systems to be spied on, in contravention of basic
32rights”, Dirk Engling continued. “Spying on hard disks will only be
33possible within strictly defined limits. The Federal Constitutional
34Court has provided humanity's virtual self with a digital protective
35shield.”
36
37Analysing the data seized will also have to be based on the criteria
38relating to the new basic right. The investigation authorities’
39procedures when collecting evidence by digital means must now be
40immediately put to the test. The searching of hard disks by private
41companies, which has recently become commonplace, is therefore clearly
42unconstitutional. The judges also determined that informational
43self-protection through encryption is a right that may only be abrogated
44under very strict conditions.
45
46The Chaos Computer Club once again came to Karlsruhe for the delivery of
47the judgement with the black, red and gold “Federal Trojan”, which is
48the symbol of resistance against online searches. The Green Party, which
49recently attracted negative attention by waving through former interior
50minister Otto Schily’s “spying laws” and endorsing the ban on hacker
51tools, tried to demonstrate their newly found love for digital civil
52rights with a vigil in front of the court. This civil rights friendly
53position will hopefully be maintained if the Greens get back into
54government.
55
56The lawyers will turn their attention to interpreting the judgement in
57the next few weeks and draw the relevant conclusions. “Although the
58Federal Trojan was positively slaughtered, important other decisions on
59basic rights are imminent. However, we don't expect Wolfgang Schäuble
60(the Federal Interior Minister) or Dieter Wiefelspütz (the German Social
61Democratic Party’s expert on domestic policy) to suddenly take our
62constitution seriously. The new basic right will only come to life if it
63is aggressively defended and exercised.”