Government surveillance of citizens' personal computers is a violation of privacy, Germany's highest court ruled today. Citizens' basic right to privacy is protected by Germany's constitution, the court said, a protection that extends to their stored data. "Collecting such data directly encroaches on a citizens' rights, given that fear of being observed... can prevent unselfconscious personal communication," said Judge Hans-Juergen Papier in the court's opinion.

The case began last year when officials in North Rhine-Westphalia began spying on computer-related activities using trojans and spyware (also known as "policeware"). The government apparently had few problems with this, saying that such activities were important in the fight against terrorism. Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble even suggested changing German law to give the government more freedom to use policeware and engage in other PC-related surveillance.

Papier disagreed, saying that the North Rhine-Westphalia law was unconstitutional and that his ruling would set a precedent for the whole country on how to treat individuals' privacy. He did rule, however, that the state could employ some surveillance services under extreme conditions, but doing so would require prior permission from a judge. Such an exception would be made when there is "clear evidence of a concrete threat," similar to what is already required to tap a suspect's phone lines under current German law.

Surprisingly, Schäuble seemed to welcome the judge's opinion, saying that he would refer to the clause allowing surveillance when preparing new legislation. "I hope that the insecurity felt by young people will be tempered by this decision; it shows that our government... protects the people's rights," Schäuble said, according to the Associated Press.

The ruling goes against the example of countries like the US and UK which continue to push for increased surveillance at the expense of privacy. Network security experts, however, warned earlier this month that such wide-scale digital surveillance could actually create new security risks. "The US could build for its opponents something that would be too expensive for them to build for themselves," researchers noted, "a system that lets them see the US's intelligence interests, a system that could tell them how to thwart those interests, and a system that might be turned to intercept the communications of American citizens and institutions."