Thursday, October 04, 2007

Wow! Logging Is Illegal in Germany!

From Eric Fitzgerald on "Windows Security Logging and Other Esoterica" comes a major wow: logging is now illegal in Germany: "A German court has ruled that a government web site may not retain IP addresses and other personally identifiable information (PII) in their logs for any longer than the user is actually using the site.

The judges pointed out that in many cases it was simple to map an IP address to an identity with the help of 3rd parties, and declared that logging IP addresses was a "violation of the right to informational self-determination."

I was tempted to put this into "Nobody is That Stupid ... Oh, Wait!", but, to be honest, I am not sure I fully believe it...

Dr Anton Chuvakin