privacy – Tech Notes

Posted in data protection, data retention, privacy

The Slovak Constitutional Court on Risk Profiling and Automated Decision-Making by the Tax Authority

The Slovak Constitutional Court just published its eKasa decision, dealing with the constitutionality of indiscriminate data collection of store receipts and their subsequent re-use for risk profiling of companies. Context Some years ago, the Slovak legislature adopted a law mandating the collection of all store receipts in the country. Every receipt issued by a sole

Posted in CJEU, personal data, privacy

CJEU is Asked: Are Dynamic IP Addresses Personal Data?

BGH just issued a press release informing that it filed a preliminary reference to the CJEU. The question is whether dynamic IP addresses constitute a personal data according to Art. 2 (a) Data Protection Directive. The case arose between an individual who is suing the Federal Republic of Germany for an injunction against the storage

Posted in Art. 12 EcomD, privacy, Tor

Austrian Court Sentenced a Tor Exit Node Operator

Last week, Austrian Regional Criminal Court in Graz (Landesgericht für Strafsachen in Graz) sentenced 22-year old William Weber to 3 months jail time with 3 years probation period for aiding distribution of child pornography by operating a Tor Exit Node, according to FutureZone.at. For those who don’t know Tor Project, it is a Free Software

Should We Centralize the Right to be Forgotten Clearing House?

Being in Silicon Valley during the time when the honourable Court of Justice of the European Union “cracks” its epic right to be forgotten ruling, is a very interesting social experience. Suddenly, the European part of you receives a strange lot of attention among tech folks in all the small talks. No wonder.

Posted in CJEU, data protection, data retention, EU, privacy

Data Retention Challenge Earns Historical Victory for Privacy

I am sure all of you already know by this time about the epic privacy ruling – Digital Rights Ireland C-293/12 – that the Court of Justice of the EU yesterday handed down. This post won’t be a usual legal analysis on which you are used to. I think that more learned colleagues and experts

Posted in data protection, personal data, privacy, search engines

Some Notes on AG’s Opinion in Google Spain Case

Being in almost summer off-mode, I finally found some time to read AG’s Opinion in Google Spain C-131/12. I was personally quite surprised to find there many references to eCommerce Directive safe harbors and secondary liability in the data protection law. Here are my notes with relevant passages. But let me start with super short

Are Banks Required to Disclose the Indentity of their Customers to Copyright Holders?

FutureOfCopyright reports very interesting recent Dutch copyright case – BREIN v. ING (Case No. C/13/539327). Local anti-piracy group BREIN sued well known bank and insurance company, ING, for disclosure of identity and bank transfers of one of it’s customers, who is a domain name holder of a website (largest Usenet community in the Netherlands with

Posted in CJEU, data retention, privacy

Digital Rights Ireland Case: CJEU vs. Data Retention

So after two years of waiting for the Irish preliminary reference concerning the constitutionality of the date retention directive, we finally got it. The case C-293/12 Digital Rights Ireland could be, lets hope, very positive landmark ruling in the field of privacy in the digital age. The filled questions are so far not published on

Posted in Auskunftsanspruch, CJEU, copyright, enforcement, personal data, privacy

CJEU: Bonnier Audio – Quite Disappointment

CJEU today rendered its highly awaited decision in Bonnier Audio C-164/10. Author of these lines is however *very very* disappointed by the outcome. It seems to me that the Court of Justice of European Union, does not realize its ‘constitutional role’ for the member states. The entire decision is pretty much just excerpts from the

Posted in CR, data retention, DE, EU, privacy, SK

Data Retention Status Quo in Slovakia

On the 4th of October, European Information Society Institute filled a complaint (in Slovak bellow) to General Prosecution of the Slovak Republic (Generálna prokuratúra SR) concerning unconstitutionality of the data retention law in Slovakia. It has now two months to scrutinize the complaint and thoroughly assess whether to file a complaint to the Constitutional Court