New AI powers for German security authorities approved
On Wednesday, the Federal Cabinet passed a far-reaching legislative package that considerably expands the digital investigative capabilities of the security authorities. Under the lead of the Interior and Justice Ministries, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the Federal Police and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees will in future be authorised to use technologies such as artificial intelligence and automated biometric matching.
The new rules are intended to replace the laborious manual process in which officers previously had to search social networks by hand for photos of suspects. Instead, an automated digital dragnet search becomes possible, conceived as a response to technological developments.
Automated facial recognition in social media
The centrepiece of the reform is the new Section 98d of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which creates the legal basis for automated biometric online image matching. This provision enables a dragnet search using biometric data from ongoing proceedings and publicly accessible information on the internet.
In concrete terms, this means that investigators will in future be able to have photos of suspects automatically matched against images in social media in order to establish their identity or whereabouts. However, the measure is tied to suspicion of a criminal offence of "considerable significance" and requires a judicial order.
Contradiction of the government's account
The federal government emphasises that no permanent state image database is being built and that real-time surveillance via public webcams remains ruled out. Experts, however, describe these restrictions as a farce: automated matching of millions of web images within fractions of a second is technically impossible without first creating a structured, searchable database of all available faces.
Linking police databases with AI
The second central building block of the reform concerns automated data analysis under Section 98e of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Police databases that have so far been isolated are to be linked with one another and examined using analysis software in order to identify cross-connections between proceedings more quickly.
Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) defended the measures with the argument that it would be negligent to withhold such instruments from the authorities. She assured that decisions would continue to be made by humans and not by AI systems. However, IT systems will in future also be allowed to be trained on real data from police holdings in order to increase the performance of the algorithms.
Massive criticism from civil rights organisations
An alliance of 14 civil society organisations, including the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and AlgorithmWatch, is warning of a paradigm shift towards mass surveillance. The organisations complain that the new powers could mean the end of anonymity in public spaces.
The possibility of carrying out biometric scans across the entire internet in particular is criticised as a massive infringement of fundamental rights. Critics point out that investigators would be permitted to use services such as Clearview AI or PimEyes, which jeopardises state control over sensitive data.
Constitutional concerns
Konstantin von Notz, deputy parliamentary group leader of the Greens, sees the rule of law under threat. The planned instruments would affect "by no means only people directly in the focus of the security authorities, but potentially everyone, including entirely law-abiding citizens". He questions the constitutionality of the drafts and is particularly critical of the attempt to circumvent European civil rights by outsourcing data matching abroad.
Concern about technological dependency
Automated data analysis is accompanied by fears of a so-called "Lex Palantir". Civil society complains that the laws could create the legal conditions for the use of this software, leading to technological dependency on a US corporation with an "anti-democratic agenda".
Von Notz describes the potential use of Palantir as "maximally negligent". Instead of modernising the police's federal IT systems, backlogs would be papered over with opaque algorithms.
Conflict with EU law feared
Civil rights campaigners consider the measures incompatible with the EU's AI Act, which strictly regulates remote biometric identification. It must not be the case, they argue, that every selfie on the internet potentially becomes fodder for the security authorities' analysis software.
A petition against the legislative package is already running and has collected more than 140,000 signatures. The drafts now move on to the Bundestag and Bundesrat for further deliberation, where it will become clear whether the constitutional concerns are heard.
Outlook for the digital surveillance landscape
The measures adopted mark a significant step towards a comprehensive digital surveillance infrastructure. While the government emphasises the necessity of technological modernisation, critics warn of a loss of fundamental civil rights. The parliamentary debate will have to show whether a compromise between security needs and data protection can be found.
