Dynamic IP-addresses are personal data

The German Federal Court (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) decided, that dynamic IP-addresses are personal data. Also the BGH decides, that website operators are allowed to store the IP-address.

The judgement precedes on a decision of the European Court of Justice (EuGH) from the last year.

The EuGH decides, that a dynamic IP-address is a personal data, when the person concerned can be identified by means of the IP-address.

A German politician worried about the storing of his IP-address, because different federal institutes and authorities stored unasked his IP-address after he visited their websites. He fears, that the institutes and authorities are able to understand what he read and clicked on in the past times. Therefore his fundamental right on informational self-determination is infringed. He wants the court to decide, that his IP-address can be stored during his visit but not above.

The BGH now established, that the dynamic IP-address is personal data and the fundamental rights of the users should not be infringed, but websites are allowed to invest protocols of the surfers who visited their website, after the visitation, but only on the premise of emergency response. Especially in cases of hacker attacks. A criminal prosecution must be possible. The legal foundation is § 15 Telemediengesetz (TMG). § 15 I TMG must be interpreted compliant to the European law. Collection and processing of personal data must be required for the functionality of the service.

It is good to know that the website operator has no possibility of identifying the user by means of his IP-address, only the internet provider is able to identify the user by means of the IP-address, because the provider allocates the IP-address to the user.