Protecting passwords and PINs
February 24, 2012
Germany's constitutional court has ruled the current law allowing security services to store and share telecommunications data to be too far-reaching and therefore unconstitutional.
The current legislation allows prosecutors to access passwords and PIN numbers of prospective offenders. The judges found that to be in violation of the basic law on self-determination as stated in the German constitution.
There it says that citizens have the right to maintain control over personal information.
The judges on Friday found that it was unconstitutional to allow investigators to gather sensitive information without clearer restrictions on how to use them.
Information on individuals' telephone, internet or bank details can be obtained from telecommunications companies only for criminial prosecution. But investigators have been found to have gathered and stored sensitive information extensively in the name of preventing criminal activity. But now the constitutional court has found this to have been excessive
In 1983 the supreme court in Karlsruhe passed its first verdict on data protection and ruled as unconstitutional the procedure where town registry offices passed on information to be used in the general census of that year. Back then the judges had clarified that every citizen has the right to know what personal information is recorded where.
The latest ruling this Friday means that the law governing the storage and use by public administration offices has to be ammended by June 2013.
rg/mz (dpa, afp)