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CJEU: IP addresses are protected personal data as they identify users
Personal data: IP addresses are protected personal data because they allow the concerned users to be precisely identified.
Original title: SCARLET EXTENDED SA V. SOCIETE BELGE DES AUTEURS, COMPOSITEURS ET EDITEURS SCRL (SABAM), 24.Nov.2011 (“SCARLET”)
Judgment
Summary
(¶ 51)
Full text
summary
Personal data: IP addresses are protected personal data because they allow the concerned users to be precisely identified. (¶ 51)
¶51 excerpt
It is common ground, first, that the injunction requiring installation of the contested filtering system would involve a systematic analysis of all content and the collection and identification of users’ IP addresses from which unlawful content on the network is sent. Those addresses are protected personal data because they allow those users to be precisely identified.
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