Slashdot Mirror
German Court Rules That Websites Can't Retain Logged IPs
tmk writes "The local court of the Berlin district of Mitte has barred the Federal Ministry of Justice from logging IP adresses of the visitors of its website. German law prohibits storing personal data for a longer time — if not needed for accounting. German privacy activists have started a campaign Wir speichern nicht, ("we don't log your data!") which provides manuals how to turn off the IP logging on your server."
Yes, but by the time you've told me that's your policy, you've already logged me.
There has been a movement to INCREASE the amount of logging going and to force ISP's to maintain detailed records for long periods of their users actions. That is WAY more intrusive then a website logging your ip. You do NOT have to go to a website, you are bound to use an ISP.
Before all the privacy loonies wake up, remember that it is perfectly normal for ALL your phone calls to be logged and it is standard practive for the police to check them, with court order, if they suspect something.
The most common example of this is a bomb threath. The police will have a record of where the call was made from.
This ruling makes this impossible to do the same with a bomb threath send over the internet. Wouldn't this ruling make even the most basic web policing, the blocking of ip adresses, impossible?
This seems like an overly broad ruling that leaves a lot of web admins in trouble because they can no longer effectively manage their servers.
Yes it is a nice counter to the european wide move to log EVERYTHING but there is such a thing as balance. Logging everything is wrong, but not being able to log anything can lead to just as much trouble.
For all the slashdot privacy nutters I ask you this. How often have you sniggered when some scumbag was traced by online activists and had his private information published on slashdot?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Who's there?
Denial Of Service Attack
Denial Of Service Attack Who?
We dont know.. we dont log that stuff..