Around one in four people worldwide communicate via WhatsApp. This makes protecting privacy and encrypted communication all the more important. However, Germany's government now wants to circumvent this.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution should be able to monitor WhatsApp messages – the most important thing to start with:

The CDU’s draft law on the “federal Trojan” was rejected in 2019. Seehofer is now presenting a revised version, and resistance to the law is now decreasing.

Bypassing encryption when threats occur

The CDU, especially Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, has been trying for a long time to abolish encryption, especially in the case of “particularly serious threats”, in order to be able to intervene if the worst comes to the worst.
In spring 2019 there was a draft law calling for powers for the protection of the constitution. The then Federal Minister of Justice Katarina Barley (SPD) rejected the package.

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However, after the right-wing extremist-motivated murder of CDU politician Walter Lübcke and the attack on the synagogue in Halle, the topic is present again. The SPD has now also changed its stance on this. The resistance to such a law is decreasing.

What is required?

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution should be given the opportunity to install Trojans on suspects' cell phones. These intercept WhatsApp messages before they are encrypted. Of course, the focus here is not just on WhatsApp. A suspect's entire communication could be monitored in this way.

In the future, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution should read messages from extremists and potential terrorists.
This is what you can read in Seehofer's revised draft. In addition, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution would also be given the authority to conduct online searches. The service could then access cell phones, tablets and computers via Trojans and search the data on these devices. So far, only the police are allowed to use surveillance Trojans.

The reason given is “current challenges” in the area of ​​“international terrorism and right-wing terrorism”. In order to ward off precisely these dangers, secret services need “modern digital intelligence powers”.

General surveillance to fear?

Of course, this law is primarily about crimes that can be thwarted in this way. However, all other users with large-scale surveillance would also be placed under general suspicion.

“It is important that the monitoring capabilities of our security authorities are adapted to technical developments.
No criminal uses a landline these days. It's not about mass surveillance, but about the fact that in a few cases the constitutional protection offices can do more than just tap telephone lines," said the SPD's domestic policy spokeswoman, Ute Vogt, to Spiegel.

Compromises within the government

Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) is now willing to compromise. However, the Social Democrats demand one prerequisite. Namely that parliamentary control of the secret services will be expanded. In his draft law, Seehofer proposes to increase the size of the Bundestag committee that examines surveillance measures by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

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Seehofer deleted a controversial point from the first draft from the updated version. Originally, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was supposed to be able to target radicalized children and young people under the age of 14, which was rejected by the SPD as “completely out of the question”.

Source: giga.de / Spiegel
Article image: Shutterstock / From posteriori


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