Consumer users successfully sue against google provisions

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The regional court of berlin declared a total of 25 clauses illegal, as the federation of german consumer organizations (vzbv) announced on tuesday. They had been formulated too vaguely or had inadmissibly restricted the rights of consumers. The ruling is not yet legally binding, google wants to appeal.

13 of the clauses are about data protection. In its data protection declaration, google has reserved the right, among other things, to "possibly" collect device-specific information and location data or "under certain circumstances" to combine personal data from the various google services, explained vzbv head gerd billen. For consumers, it remained unclear exactly what they were supposed to agree to, he criticized.

In addition, in the view of the vzbv, it is not possible to give legally compliant consent to the use of personal data if consumers merely tick a declaration with the following text when registering: "I agree to google’s terms of use and have read the data protection declaration."

Google believes consumer users do not have standing to sue over privacy policy because it is not part of terms and conditions. Billen calls for expanded right to sue: "consumer associations must also be able to take action without hurdles against violations of data protection law." The new federal government should create a corresponding regulation.

Meanwhile, data privacy activists buried the berlin district court ruling. It will also stand up in the following instances, said imke sommer, chairwoman of the conference of federal and state data protection commissioners, to the "berliner zeitung" (thursday edition). "No court will see it differently."

Google will have to revise its data protection regulations. The company must inform about what it intends to do with the data – "vague formulations are not enough". Otherwise, user consents to data protection provisions are "invalid," said sommer.

According to the vzbv, the twelve affected terms of use include google’s right to remove applications from a device, to remove functions from services, and to check, change and delete all data posted on the services. The vzbv also considered the fact that google reserved the right to unilaterally change the terms of use without the consumer’s consent to be unreasonably disadvantageous.

"We will appeal against the ruling. We are convinced that our terms of use and our privacy policy are in accordance with the relevant laws," a google spokesman said on tuesday evening.

April 12, 2023 by 0Comments
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Sparkasse freiburg may not charge its customers for certain services. This was the decision of the federal court of justice (BGH), which declared several additional fees charged by the sparkasse to be invalid.

Banks must base certain prices on actual costs incurred, karlsruhe ruling says. Among other things, it was about five euros for postal notifications, for example, about rejected bank transfers. (az.XI ZR 590/15)

The karlsruhe judges considered this to be an unreasonable disadvantage for consumers. The savings bank had thus passed on costs to its customers that were not related to the actual notification of a non-executed payment order.

The bank may not demand a fee even for the suspension or cancellation of a standing order. According to the karlsruhe judges, this was a revocation which, by law, must normally be processed free of charge.

In an earlier ruling, the german federal court of justice (BGH) had already determined that a lien protection account should not cost more than a normal account. Also against it the savings bank had died until 2012.

Jorg schadtler of the protection association for bank customers, which had sued the savings bank, advised consumers to now reclaim overpaid fees. Meanwhile, the freiburg bank said it would reconsider its fee policy. "The amount that the savings bank is now missing is bearable", said jorg frenzel of the savings bank freiburg. "Nevertheless, due to the current interest rate policy, every euro pays for itself."

June 3, 2023 by 0Comments
Terror threat at half marathon in berlin? Police arrest six suspected islamists

Police prevent suspected attack on half-marathon in berlin: police arrested six suspected islamists and searched several apartments in berlin on sunday.

Before the half-marathon, there were "isolated indications that those arrested, aged between 18 and 21, could have been involved in the preparation of a crime in connection with this event", the police declared. Because of these indications and the as yet incompletely clarified background to the munster shooting, the authorities decided to take action.

No concrete evidence

In the evening, the police stressed that they had no concrete evidence that the sporting event could have been the target of an attack. "There was no danger for the runners, participants and staff at any time", police spokesman thomas neuendorf told the german press agency. Police were "particularly attentive" in the run-up to the half marathon. The searches had been carried out on "people we consider to be in the islamist-terrorist field". The confiscated evidence, including cell phones and computers, was further evaluated.

The police announced on twitter that the state security had searched apartments and vehicles in the city together with the public prosecutor's office. The spokesman for the berlin public prosecutor's office, martin steltner, would not confirm on request that it could have been a planned terrorist attack. He also did not comment on a possible link between the suspects and the christmas market attack of anis amri. Because of the ongoing investigation, no further details could be given at this time, it said.

Connection to berlin bomber anis amri

The newspaper "the world had previously reported that police had thwarted an attack during the half-marathon, to which 36 people had been invited on sunday, according to the organizers.000 runners and 250.000 spectators had come to berlin's city center. Special forces had arrested four mannerists, including a prime suspect. According to the newspaper, he planned to kill spectators and participants of the sporting event with knives. The suspect is said to have belonged to the private circle of terrorist amri, who carried out the attack on the berlin christmas market at the end of 2016.

Berlin's mayor, michael muller (SPD), thanked the security forces – also in view of the rampage in munster "for their prudence and police work in preventing a further attack on the peaceful spectators enjoying the half-marathon". "Whether in munster, berlin or elsewhere – we will not allow our peaceful coexistence to be taken away from us", muller wrote on his facebook page.

The police union (gdp) expressed satisfaction with the security forces' actions. "It is reassuring that the berlin police apparently had these suspected dangers under surveillance in such a way that they were able to pull them out of circulation at any time", gdp chairman oliver malchow declared.

One of the apartments now searched in the west of the city had been reported to the "welt" also searched after the attack on the berlin christmas market at the end of 2016. In the cellar of the apartment of a suspected accomplice of the main suspect who was overpowered on sunday, dogs specially trained for explosives attacked the suspect. Police tweeted this evening that no explosives had been found during the searches.

The newspaper quoted a "senior police officer" as saying this, according to which there was no concrete danger because the man had been observed by the security forces for a long time.

According to the "tagesspiegel-according to information, the main suspect had previously been under permanent surveillance for two weeks. He was known to the authorities from the investigation into the amri attack in berlin, the newspaper quoted security sources as saying. Most recently, there was apparently a tip-off from a foreign intelligence service that the man was planning an attack on the half-marathon. That is why the security forces had intervened on sunday.

After the rampage in munster, it was initially feared that it might be a terrorist attack. Already on saturday evening, however, it was announced that the attack had no terrorist or islamist background. The perpetrator was a german, according to dpa information possibly a mentally unstable single perpetrator.

Berlin's interior senator andreas geisel (SPD) had announced on saturday, immediately after the munster rampage, that the police had once again increased the already "extremely high security precautions" will be investigated for the half marathon.

According to the organizers, the half-marathon ended without any unusual incidents on the course. "We carried out a normal race", said a spokesman for SCC events on sunday the german press agency. "From the participant's side everything went well."

June 6, 2023 by 0Comments
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