Interesante Sentencia alemana sobre derecho a la intimidad de móviles, PDA, etcs

Este blog explica las novedades introducidas en la Constitución Alemana después de la Sentencia de 27 de febrero de 2008 sobre la inconstitucionalidad de búsquedas secretas en ordenadores, equipos personales de comunicación por parte de organismos del Estado. Esta sentencia supone una landmark ruling que enmienda y amplía este aspecto concreto del derecho a la intimidad en el Texto Fundamental.  

 

Noticia también publicada en inglés en Digital Civil Rights in Europe.

 

Aquí va un resumen mío del artículo de Ralf Bendrath:  

The decision of today is widely considered a landmark ruling, because it constitutes a new "basic right to the confidentiality and integrity of information-technological systems" as part of the general personality rights in the German constitution. The reasoning goes:

"From the relevance of the use of information-technological systems for the expression of personality (Persönlichkeitsentfaltung) and from the dangers for personality that are connected to this use follows a need for protection that is significant for basic rights. The individual is depending upon the state respecting the justifiable expectations for the integrity and confidentiality of such systems with a view to the unrestricted expression of personality." (margin number 181)

The decision complements earlier landmark privacy rulings by the Constitutional Court that had introduced the "right to informational self-determination" (1983) and the right to the "absolute protection of the core area of the private conduct of life" (2004).

Information-technical systems that are protected under the new basic right are all systems that: "alone or in their technical interconnectedness can contain personal data of the affected person in a scope and multiplicity such that access to the system makes it possible to get insight into relevant parts of the conduct of life of a person or even gather a meaningful picture of the personality." (margin number 203)

This includes laptops, PDAs and mobile phones.