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title: German constitutional court creates new fundamental right to digital privacy
date: 2008-02-27 00:00:00
updated: 2009-11-07 17:50:16
author: presse
tags: update, pressemitteilung, bundesverfassungsgericht
Today, 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.
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The Karlsruhe judges made it clear with their decision that the society
has a legitimate interest in the confidentiality and integrity of the IT
systems it increasingly depends on and that freedom of thought also
exists if ideas are stored on to a computer. The Chaos Computer Club
(CCC) has been demanding this right to digital privacy for over 25
years. The protection of the digital self not only affects computers but
also telephones and other networked devices. “We can only hope that the
politicians who only know the internet from print-outs don't need
another quarter of a century until they have taken this new fundamental
right on board”, Dirk Engling, the CCC’s spokesman, commented.
The constitutional court judges point out in their oral reasons for the
judgement that the systematic tapping of communication data and the
creation of personality profiles are serious violations of basic rights.
“We assume that this judgement will also apply to the constitutional
review of the Data Retention Act”, Dirk Engling said. Several
constitutional complaints have been filed against the data retention
that came to effect in January.
“The judges have given the lawmakers a slap in the face for allowing all
kinds of information systems to be spied on, in contravention of basic
rights”, Dirk Engling continued. “Spying on hard disks will only be
possible within strictly defined limits. The Federal Constitutional
Court has provided humanity's virtual self with a digital protective
shield.”
Analysing the data seized will also have to be based on the criteria
relating to the new basic right. The investigation authorities’
procedures when collecting evidence by digital means must now be
immediately put to the test. The searching of hard disks by private
companies, which has recently become commonplace, is therefore clearly
unconstitutional. The judges also determined that informational
self-protection through encryption is a right that may only be abrogated
under very strict conditions.
The Chaos Computer Club once again came to Karlsruhe for the delivery of
the judgement with the black, red and gold “Federal Trojan”, which is
the symbol of resistance against online searches. The Green Party, which
recently attracted negative attention by waving through former interior
minister Otto Schily’s “spying laws” and endorsing the ban on hacker
tools, tried to demonstrate their newly found love for digital civil
rights with a vigil in front of the court. This civil rights friendly
position will hopefully be maintained if the Greens get back into
government.
The lawyers will turn their attention to interpreting the judgement in
the next few weeks and draw the relevant conclusions. “Although the
Federal Trojan was positively slaughtered, important other decisions on
basic rights are imminent. However, we don't expect Wolfgang Schäuble
(the Federal Interior Minister) or Dieter Wiefelspütz (the German Social
Democratic Party’s expert on domestic policy) to suddenly take our
constitution seriously. The new basic right will only come to life if it
is aggressively defended and exercised.”
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