Data protection authorities in Lower Saxony are stepping up their efforts to make it harder for German websites to pass along visitors' IP addresses. If they succeed, it could mean the end of online advertising in Germany in its current form.
Despite the frequent politicization of internet privacy laws in Germany, a survey released this week revealed that an alarming number of people are still going online with inadequate privacy protection.
Under pressure from German privacy watchdogs, Facebook has agreed to beef up privacy protections in its Friend Finder feature, a data protection official in Hamburg said this week.
A German firm is poised to launch software allowing users to have photos uploaded to websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Flickr erased automatically after a certain time.
The debate over tougher security laws intensified on Friday, with Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger warning against “political exploitation” of heightened terrorism fears.
With nearly a quarter of a million Germans opting out of Google’s Street View service, US author and journalist Jeff Jarvis laments the digital bombing of the country’s landscape in a guest commentary.
A day after a small town became the first in Germany to welcome Google's controversial Street View service with open arms and cake, a tiny northern village responded Wednesday with a resounding <i>Nein</i>.
Google presented Germany a foretaste of its controversial Street View navigation programme on Tuesday, featuring six national landmarks, 10 Bundesliga football stadiums and a few streets in the country's southern Allgäu region.
Some 245,000 buildings were registered for Google Street View’s opt-out scheme in Germany, the company revealed on Thursday, saying the figure did not correspond with the widespread controversy over the online navigation service.
German ministers have criticised social networking site Facebook for failing to respect privacy, following a report of a serious flaw that allowed non-subscribers access to private data.
Time is almost up for German residents to opt out of having their homes or businesses shown on Google's controversial Street View navigation service. The deadline is midnight on Friday for people living in the 20 cities set to go online later this year.
Politicians and data protection experts on Friday lambasted the practice of surreptitiously collecting customer data tied to purchases made with German EC debit cards.
German politicians on Monday called for comprehensive data protection regulations ahead of a summit in Berlin on handling hot-button issues such as geotagging and the controversial online mapping service Google Street View.
Google is facing fierce opposition to its Street View service in Germany with hundreds of thousands opting out, <i>Der Spiegel</i> news weekly reported in its latest issue.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt said on Thursday he understood why Germans were uneasy about the company's Street View service for historical reasons, as he began a charm offensive aimed at assuaging their privacy concerns.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière wants to give Germans the right to a “digital eraser” to delete personal online content, he said on Tuesday. He hopes to add the idea to a new data protection law set for completion this autumn.
The Deutsche Telekom spying trial took a dramatic turn on its opening day Friday when the main accused, Klaus Trzeschan, made a partial admission and incriminated the company’s then boss Kai-Uwe Ricke.
German drugstore chain Schlecker has suffered a major online data breach, with the names, addresses and profiles of about 150,000 customers being exposed on the internet, the company announced Friday.
Responding to a firestorm of protest in Germany over its disputed Street View navigation service, Google said Thursday it would extend a deadline for allowing people to opt out.
Google Street View is still harmless, says German consumer protection expert <b>Falk Lüke</b>, but that doesn’t mean the current discussion surrounding it is unnecessary. Instead, we should be focused on creating international rules for online privacy.
Coalition politicians are demanding Google be forced to gather residents’ consent to have their homes photographed for Street View rather than wait for them to object, as cabinet prepared Wednesday to discuss changes to the law.
German Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner on Tuesday called on Google to improve the options for the country's citizens to opt out from having their homes featured on the internet giant’s online “Street View” program.
