# VPN provider wins a court fight: Police can't get or use its database

**URL:** <https://onehack.st/t/vpn-provider-wins-a-court-fight-police-cant-get-or-use-its-database/159751>\
**Category:** News & Articles\
**Tags:** privacy, news\
**Created:** [October 21, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/vpn-provider-wins-a-court-fight-police-cant-get-or-use-its-database/159751 "2020-10-21T19:01:45Z")\
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**Author:** ![Mika](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/mika/32/49455_2.png) [@Mika](https://onehack.st/u/Mika)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/vpn-provider-wins-a-court-fight-police-cant-get-or-use-its-database/159751/1 "2020-10-21T19:01:45Z")

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![](https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/sd7.staattinen.fi/sites/www.fsecurevip.com/files/styles/product/s3/2018/Logot/f-secure-logo.png?itok=Ke4qyQaF)  
Finnish VPN and antivirus provider **F-Secure** scored a big win in courts this week. It sued Finnish law enforcement authority over a database raid that was conducted in January, 2019.

In the raid, Germany’s top law enforcement agency had asked assistance from its Finnish counterpart, **National Bureau of Investigation** , to get its hands to F-Secure’s **Freedome** VPN user logs. Germany’s authorities wanted to get the data to get evidence for a “serious crime case” in Germany.

As per requested, Finnish NBI confiscated F-Secure’s Freedome user records and list of IP addresses used by its users - all of them, not just the ones related to the German authorities criminal case.

F-Secure sued and wanted courts to rule the confiscation of its data illegal. Lower courts have previously agreed with F-Secure’s argument and ruled the case in favor of F-Secure. Now, Finnish court of appeals ruled in line with the lower court, in favor of F-Secure.

According to the ruling, authorities can’t have blanket access to VPN data, as F-Secure acts simply as a “messenger” for the transmitted data. If authorities would need information about specific user, they’d have to obtain a warrant from court first in order to get a (very specific) set of data, only related to the case in question.

Obviously, this is a big win for F-Secure, as it can now rely on this ruling in its own VPN service marketing, too.

_Source: [MTV Uutiset](https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/krp-havisi-oikeuskiistan-tietoturvayhtio-f-securea-vastaan-oikeus-maarasi-poliisin-tuhoamaan-tietonsa/7960872) (in Finnish)_ / [Afterdawn](https://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2020/10/21/vpn-provider-wins-a-court-fight-police-can-t-get-or-use-its-databaseAfterdawn)