Hi,
germany’s highest court of justice , the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) has given a new direction to the discussion about German authority’s online searching of home computers:
http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/entscheidungen/rs20080227_1bvr037007.html
They considered the confidentiality and Integrity of IT systems as a “basic right” in the apprecitation of the German Basic Constitutional Law. As a deduction of the general personal right, it’s assigned as the second “protection level” after being a paragraph in our constitution.
Hopefully, this judgement is a pro for freedom. But I guess government and executive organs will find a way to bypass it via “immediate responsibility” “to revert danger”. But, at least, no online searching for minor reasons will be legalized or accepted by any court.
Yours,
Usn