back to article German court curbs data collection law

Germany's Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe today has curbed Germany's wide-reaching data collection law even further, by stating that the data can only be collected and saved in case of real danger to citizens. The Court decided in response to a class action suit filed by 34,000 Germans. The data collection law, which …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let's all move to Germany

    Better still, let's invite them here to liberate us from Scottish mafiosi oppression. Again.

  2. Dave
    Thumb Up

    Yes!!

    OMFG! Common sense has prevailed - now why can't a similar thing happen in the UK?????!!!!

  3. Brian
    Flame

    Neues Arbeit - Take Heed!

    Hopefully Wacqui Jacqui Schmidt, Geoff Hun and Herr Braun will notice this and take account of common sense when promoting the Uberdatabase.

    On the other hand, their authoritarian bias knows no bounds - all we can hope for is a General Election sometime soon.

    Arslochen, the lot of 'em.

  4. Ted Treen
    Unhappy

    Oh the irony of it

    when we Brits are being told "Ve gif ze orders" by Obergruppenfuhrer Smith, that a German court curbs the state and protects freedom & privacy.

    If Churchill were alive today, he'd be spinning in his grave.....

    Unlike NuLab who are spinning just about everywhere...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Forward thinking.

    Well the Germans appear to have the right idea on this topic. Would be nice if we could get it together to similar stands here in the UK.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ECJ should remove EU Data Retention Directive

    Who innocent people speak to, what emails innocent people send, and where innocent people are when their phones are switched on is none of your f**ing business.

    ECJ should annul the EU Data retention directive, it's pre-emptive surveillance without probable cause.

    It established a president, allowing nations to remove the right of privacy by merely hypothesizing some future crime. i.e. substitute a hypothesis of future probable cause for *actual* probably cause.

    See how nutjobs like Jackie Smith interpreted it, to understand what damage it did.

    So that directive should be annulled and we should go back to probable cause, and rights, and individual liberties.

    Time to move on from the Bush era, or should that be error.

  7. dervheid
    Alert

    How the world has turned.

    'Freedom' for the Germans; psychotic, power crazed control freak dictators for us!

  8. Michael Sauerbrey
    Stop

    Partial sanity ...

    as the "secret online search" has just been approved by the german Bundestag. So the police- gumshoes do not need this database, because they can just break your door and install spyware at your home and equipment...

    It's probable that the court will put the brake on this "law" too, but it's the next very big drip to wear away constitutional rights.

    It's difficult to see a government create an instrument so reminding of Gestapo just to save ... what? the constitution??

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    The NSA will do it for them

    Just let your neighbors spy and exchange the information, like Echelon and the US/UK before Bush tore off the figleaf and just let the NSA spy directly on US citiz**bzrrrrrrrt!**.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    If only the UK bastages in charge would do the same

    At least the Germans will revisit laws and change them if they are used in a manner not consistent with the arguments for them made at their introduction.

    Not like in the UK where our government misuses terrorist laws to stop other countries companies from taking money out of the country (although those Icelandic people do look a bit violent :)). And where councils use terrorist laws to spy on people putting out their bins a day early.

    Next election, tell the muppet standing at your door looking for a vote that they wont get it until they change the damn big brother laws and stop using terror laws to terrorise the people they are meant to protect.

  11. Mark

    Ich bin ein Berliner

    Well, I wish I was. This just emphasises that we need a proper written constitution here too. As opposed to the mish mash of bits we currently have, which seems to require the divination of experts to understand, appears to protect no-one but the government, and allows c***ts like Jackboot Smith to claim virtually whatever they want, irrespective of it's voracity, simply because no-one knows if it's actually true or not.

    A little real democracy would go a long way on this currently benighted island.

  12. Dave
    Stop

    So What?

    According to NuLabour, we are all under such a risk anyway - event those of us living in places like Thurso, or the Shetlands - hence the existing invasions of privacy / accidental executions of Brasilian visitors.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Now, Now; If you have nothing to hide

    You have nothing to fear. Big Brother is watching out for you to keep you safe from the evildoers who run amuck because of the failure of previous administrations to do their job of protecting you.

    Now that we have control we will be able to watch everywhere and see that NO ONE is above the law and able to get away with anything (well, almost no one...we're still not going to let you watch US).

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