German court bans police from spying on PCs
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(InfoWorld) - Germany's High Court has handed down a landmark decision banning police from installing spyware on computers of suspected criminals without their knowledge. The decision, announced Monday, is a blow to the plans of the German Interior Minister Wolfgang SchÃ¤uble to give the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) greater power to monitor terrorists and other criminals online, and peek inside their computers. Two other federal judges had differed over whether police should be able to hack into the computers of suspected criminals and install spyware. In February, one judge approved police hacking. But another barred the practice in November, resulting in an appeal by federal prosecutors. The High Court in Karlsruhe argued that searching computers is similar to searching homes, a practice in Germany that requires police to follow certain procedures, such as obtaining a search warrant and informing suspected offenders of a search. The judges also argued that hacking computers by the police is not permitted under Germany's strict phone-tapping laws and that legislation would be needed to enable covert surveillance. Last year, SchÃ¤uble persuaded the German pParliament to approve â¬132 million ($171 million) for his Program for Strengthening Domestic Security. As part of the program, the BKA would have been allowed to penetrate and monitor PCs of suspected offenders in Germany via the Internet. The program also calls for greater use of video cameras in public places, biometric systems and other new security technologies, as well as the establishment of an "Internet Monitoring and Analysis Office."
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The government can continue to use its warrantless domestic wiretap program pending the Justice Department's appeal of a federal judge's ruling outlawing the program, an Appeals Court in Cincinnati ruled on Wednesday.
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Voluntary code strengthened The Press Complaints Commission has explicitly banned digital snooping by journalists in a change to its Code of Practice. The move comes in the wake of journalist Clive Goodman's conviction for eavesdropping on royal staff members' phone messages.â¦
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A court in Germany closed its doors to the public Thursday following testimony from a former neo-Nazi of a plot to topple the German government.
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A federal judge has ruled that two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow secret wiretapping and searches without a showing of probable cause
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BANGKOK - With the help of a computer program, German police digitally unscrambled the swirls that obscured the face of a man depicted having sex with boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.
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Declaring that personal security is as important as national security, a judge Wednesday blocked the government from conducting secret, unchallengeable searches of Internet and telephone records as part of its fight against terrorism.
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LUXEMBOURG/FRANKFURT  - The European Union's highest court on Tuesday struck down a German law that shielded Volkswagen  from takeover, paving the way for Porsche to take majority control of Europe's biggest carmaker.
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An antihacking proposal that has come under fire for overly restricting "white hat" security researchers has become law in Germany.
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The ruling struck down a 47-year-old German law that had blocked Porsche from taking over Volkswagen.
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Fear of a Black Hat The German government this week published proposals to modernise the country's computer hacking laws.â¦
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A decision Monday by the German Federal High Court renders it illegal in that country -â for now -â for police and intelligence services to use clandestine tools such as Trojan horse routines, or what would normally be categorized as malware, for use in surveillance on federal suspects.  But that ruling could actually launch a new law that makes such surveillance viable.
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BRUSSELS, Belgium  - The European Union's top court Thursday backed a German ban on laser tag games in which players simulate killing each other in a maze.
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A federal judge struck down controversial portions of the USA Patriot Act in a ruling that declared them unconstitutional yesterday, ordering the FBI to stop its wide use of a warrantless tactic for obtaining e-mail and telephone data from private companies for counterterrorism investigations.
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A decision from Germany's highest court resolves confusion over police power to covertly install spyware on the computers of suspected criminals.
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The Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the Bush administration's domestic spying program.
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Hackers may want to avoid Germany, after the approval of a law that makes their activity a punishable crime.