2025/11/03 by Borgesius, Frederik Zuiderveen
Social Sciences · #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #Data Privacy and Cybersecurity #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Freedom of Expression and Defamation #Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.01751
openalex publication_date 2025/11/03 · openalex created_date 2025/11/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Breyer case of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) primarily concerns the question whether a website visitor's dynamic IP address constitutes personal data for a website publisher, when another party (an internet access provider) can tie a name to that IP address. In essence, the Court finds that an IP address constitutes personal data for the website publisher, if that publisher has the legal means to obtain, from the visitor's internet access provider, additional information that enables the publisher to identify that visitor. In this case note, I summarise the facts and the judgment, and add a few comments.