The federal police will no longer be allowed to use state Trojans, according to a recent report from the FAZ. The factions of the governing coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Greens, and Free Democratic Party (FDP) have agreed on this after long arguments. This is in contrast to the previous black-red coalition, which allowed the police to install state malware directly on a suspect’s end device in order to copy data.
The police will now be unable to conduct telecommunications surveillance at the source, source TKÜ, and the Federal Ministry of the Interior has been urged to stop pushing for further authorization in this area. While the coalition agreement clearly states that they will not allow for online searches, the Federal Ministry of the Interior is urging for further progress.
In June 2021, the Bundestag approved a draft amendment allowing the use of state Trojans. However, the Federal Council did not approve the initiative due to wide cuts in the competencies of the state police. The SPD had reservations about this, so the compromise was made to only approve the source TKÜ.
According to the FAZ, regulations for collecting and evaluating inventory, usage, and traffic data are to be revised going forward. A clause against racial profiling was also agreed upon to give police forces a legally secure basis for checks without suspicion that they are being carried out solely on the basis of external characteristics.
Last year, the EU Commission initiated infringement proceedings against Germany for not fully implementing the 2016 EU directive on data protection for the police and judiciary. The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber can only object to data protection violations there, effective enforcement powers are lacking.
The government departments had been stuck in the long-planned reform, and the parliamentary groups have found a solution themselves, according to SPD interior expert Sebastian Hartmann. The Greens and FDP are also in favor of this agreement, which they believe will strengthen the freedom and security of citizens equally.
