[fiskfiskfisk]

The author makes the leap that since a government entity in theory has access to the personal information behind the IP address, the IP could be considered Personally Identifiable Information.

In most cases governments does not have this access do this information without going through proper channels (i.e. the courts) as in regular investigations.

[Tomte]

German courts have always[1] held that IP addresses are potentially identifying information and falls under privacy laws.

[1] there was a very short timespan where this issue was indeed an open question, but tech people still debated that years after the high courts had already ruled on it, making it look like it was still an open question.