German Courts Say That Info On Your Computer Is Private
from the just-say-nein dept
The German government has been pushing for the ability to spy on computers of suspected criminals and terrorists. A little over a year ago, a court came down firmly against a proposal to allow German authorities to use spyware on computers of suspected criminals to gather information. Now another German court has ruled on a similar issue, noting that using surveillance systems to spy on personal computers would be a violation of privacy rights. While German authorities are already complaining about how this will make it difficult for them to catch criminals and terrorists, it sounds like they are overreacting. Courts will still be able to approve such surveillance if authorities can show evidence of why the surveillance is needed. This seems completely reasonable, as laws shouldn't be made solely to make it easy to catch criminals. They should be made to protect the rights of individuals. When those two things come into conflict, the rights of individuals should prevail.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Um... not even in...
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Re: Um... not even in...
Like I said, fascinating.
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Re: Um... not even in...
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Are they implying that with this ability, catching criminals would be really easy, or are they implying that at the moment they suck at their job?
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Re:
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well...okay...
Also, I got that any article involving Germany and their laws makes Americans think about Nazis. Which isn't quite Godwin's Law, except for #6 lol.
I don't see what was newsworthy here. Did we somehow expect them to think it was a Good Idea to randomly install spyware just in case? I didn't think that Americans were THAT narrowminded about other countries.
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activeX or javascript ?
how do they intent to get this installed without the perps knowledge ?
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Re: activeX or javascript ?
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Re #10 Coaster
It is also relevant to todays times where a lot of the politicians and law enforcements just want to say "everyone is a criminal, or could be, so we should monitor them all" and invade everyone's privacy no matter what the cost. Which is of course wrong.
It is good to hear this news that is good and moves in the right direction. Won't matter how many times I hear news like this, as long as some countries are moving in an opposite direction, I will gladly welcome this news.
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Finally good to see some sense in all of this...
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It's already happening!
Maybe someone in Germany would like to ask their courts to rule on what is already going on in industry!
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