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There's a German fine for a police officer where he used the license plate of a "random acquaintance" to get their landline and mobile phone numbers and then us

There's a German fine for a police officer where he used the license plate of a "random acquaintance" to get their landline and mobile phone numbers and then used that to call them. This was for personal reasons and not related to his duties. I'm willing to make a $5 bet that he was attracted to a friend of a friend, and figured he'd user her car license plate in order to get her number so that he could call her. She got freaked out and reported it. I wonder how to find out more specific details on this case...

maccard 7y ago
Do you know anyone working for the german authority? If so, you could ask them to investigate for you.
- sammorrowdrums 7y ago
  Hahaha and then they ironically get fined for investigating the case for personal reasons...
w-m 7y ago
It was only a 1400 Eur fine, as it was a first offense a there was only one affected person. But misuse of the available databases for fun and personal gain seems to be quite rampant in the police force, for example they looked up the personal data of a pop star during the night of a concert 83 times recently [1]. Will be interesting to see whether some guards will be put in place (and more officers fined) to combat this behavior. [1] https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de/lfdi-baden-wuerttemberg-verhaengt-erstes-bussgeld-gegen-polizeibeamten/ https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de/lfdi-baden-wue...
- ljf 7y ago
  I'd be happy to see £1000 fine per user impacted!
- FDSGSG 7y ago
  This is a standard practice by police forces everywhere. I'd be surprised if there was a single police force in the world with strong audit controls on the usage of their DBs.
- w-m 7y ago
  Posted the link on the fine above by mistake, here’s the one about the pop star (German as well): https://www.golem.de/news/datenmissbrauch-hessens-polizisten-fragen-nicht-nur-daten-von-promis-ab-1908-142961.html https://www.golem.de/news/datenmissbrauch-hessens-polizisten...
Nimitz14 7y ago
I saw that, don't see how that is related to GDPR? Police officers haven't been allowed to do that before GDPR (I remember a policemen friend being asked by another guy 10 years ago in Germany to help identify someone based on their license plate, he declined for legal reasons).
IfOnlyYouKnew 7y ago
That (and similar) cases aren't adjudicated under GDPR. GDPR would apply to the police force / state government, not the individual officer. It was either an internal disciplinary action or a criminal case.

maccard 7y ago

Do you know anyone working for the german authority? If so, you could ask them to investigate for you.

sammorrowdrums 7y ago
Hahaha and then they ironically get fined for investigating the case for personal reasons...

w-m 7y ago

It was only a 1400 Eur fine, as it was a first offense a there was only one affected person. But misuse of the available databases for fun and personal gain seems to be quite rampant in the police force, for example they looked up the personal data of a pop star during the night of a concert 83 times recently [1]. Will be interesting to see whether some guards will be put in place (and more officers fined) to combat this behavior. [1] https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de/lfdi-baden-wuerttemberg-verhaengt-erstes-bussgeld-gegen-polizeibeamten/ https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de/lfdi-baden-wue...

ljf 7y ago
I'd be happy to see £1000 fine per user impacted!
FDSGSG 7y ago
This is a standard practice by police forces everywhere. I'd be surprised if there was a single police force in the world with strong audit controls on the usage of their DBs.
w-m 7y ago
Posted the link on the fine above by mistake, here’s the one about the pop star (German as well): https://www.golem.de/news/datenmissbrauch-hessens-polizisten-fragen-nicht-nur-daten-von-promis-ab-1908-142961.html https://www.golem.de/news/datenmissbrauch-hessens-polizisten...

Nimitz14 7y ago

I saw that, don't see how that is related to GDPR? Police officers haven't been allowed to do that before GDPR (I remember a policemen friend being asked by another guy 10 years ago in Germany to help identify someone based on their license plate, he declined for legal reasons).

IfOnlyYouKnew 7y ago

That (and similar) cases aren't adjudicated under GDPR. GDPR would apply to the police force / state government, not the individual officer. It was either an internal disciplinary action or a criminal case.