[courtneycouch0]

A German court held that IP addresses can be considered personal data for non ISPs.

Check Patrick Breyer v. Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

Literally a website just logging IP addresses of visitors.

You’re making it sound incredibly cut and dry when it’s clearly not and there’s case law on record confirming it’s not so simple.

[bmer]

I just looked up that cases' official press release:

https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/201...

I also looked up some additional explanations.

That case literally does not support the claim you make. The court decided that:

* dynamic IPs can be considered personal info if the entity collecting them has legals means to get additional information related to that IP (these legal means exist in Germany, if the entity believes they are being cyberattacked)

* furthermore, the court noted that this particular law is more restrictive than general EU law (which eventually becomes GDPR, as far as I understand: http://germanitlaw.com/patrick-breyer-v-federal-republic-of-...)

* according to the less restrictive law though, "The operator of a website may have a legitimate interest in storing certain personal data relating to visitors to that website in order to protect itself against cyberattacks"

* and this opened up the question as to which law should be followed in Germany, at least until GDPR comes into play (again, see explanation in http://germanitlaw.com/patrick-breyer-v-federal-republic-of-...)

* note then that: this issue is no longer an issue (since GDPR is in play now) and that GDPR actually allows the collection of dynamic IPs if the entity needs to do this to protect from cyberattack

[courtneycouch0]

It's kind of funny. You say "case literally does not support the claim" I make then continue to say what I said in a different way.

I was responding to a person that was claiming that essentially IP addresses are only personal data for ISPs or ISP like businesses. Which is simply not the case.

I didn't say IP addresses were always considered personal data, I simply said it can be personal data, which you also stated in your post. That it's not cut and dry. The person I was responding to was posting that IP addresses are definitively NOT personal data.

The point is, context for IPs matters. The person I was replying to was way over simplifying.

I'm not entirely sure what claim you think I made that the case doesn't back up as you essentially stated what I did just with more specificity. In any case I totally agree with your post since it's the same point I was making :)