IP Addresses Under Scrutiny as "Personal Info"
 

*Source: Tech-Ex (http://technologyexpert.blogspot.com...ersonal.html)*
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What's an IP address? It's basically a set of numbers that identifies your computer on the Internet. It's what organizations like the RIAA use to determine if you've downloaded - or uploaded - songs illegally; it's used by Google as part of the search data you have; it's encoded in emails you send. And that's just the start.

Germany's data protection commissioner, Peter Scharr, is leading a European Union group studying the privacy policies of Internet search engines in terms of compliance with EU privacy law. Yesterday he suggested that the Parliament begin regarding IP addresses as personal information, just like a phone number or Social Security number.

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