[Itpolicy-np] IP address is "Personal information" in Switzerland

[Bipin Gautam]

Brief: P2P investigations now illegal in Switzerland, Only the state
can violate personal privacy, and only when pursuing criminal cases.
It would also prevent any sort of mass lawsuit campaign against P2P
users from taking place in the country's courts.

( Source : http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/switzerland-gathering-ip-addresses-from-bittorrent-sites-illegal.ars
)

Switzerland, a longtime haven for all kinds of financial shenanigans,
has just expanded its reputation for "discretion" to cover
file-sharing as well. That's the conclusion of Logistep AG, anyway, as
a Swiss court has just gutted its P2P surveillance business with a
ruling that says gathering even publicly available information is
illegal.

But Europe has fairly strict data privacy laws and a cultural
expectation that data collection will be disclosed, with the data used
sparingly. This often alarms Internet advertising companies like
Google, which objected in 2008 to an EU proposal to label IP addresses
"personal data."

...
In a press release issued yesterday, Thür praised the court's
decision. He sees Logistep as trying to "assume tasks clearly in the
State's domain." Only the state can violate personal privacy, and only
when pursuing criminal cases.
...
Thür made clear his view that "today's decision provides no protection
for anyone breaking the law. Clearly it should be possible to punish
copyright infringements on the Internet." But how will this be done?