Status: 02/16/2023 05:03
In Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, the police use software that evaluates large-scale data – to prevent crime. But is that allowed? The Federal Constitutional Court decides on this.
At its core is a special computer program designed to help the police detect and prevent planned crimes at an early stage. To make this possible, the software works with large amounts of data.
In practice, you have to imagine it like this: In a first step, the software is fed with a very large number of different data. This is information that the police authorities themselves have collected and stored in various databases. This can be information about crimes that have already been committed – for example about the perpetrators, victims or witnesses; or data about suspicious persons and their environment.
The computer program then analyzes this data and finally spits out a specific picture of the situation. The police data that the software processes can theoretically also be supplemented: for example with data from other authorities or with data from social networks such as Facebook or Instagram.
Criticism from privacy advocates and civil rights activists
The police in Hesse are already working with such software, as is the police in North Rhine-Westphalia. In Hamburg there is a state law that allows the use of the software. Bayern also wants to use them. This relatively new form of automated data analysis has alarmed civil rights activists and privacy advocates. They see the danger that data protection will fall by the wayside.
Sarah Lincoln, a lawyer at the Freedom Rights Society, fears the same thing. “This is not just a pure inspection of data. It happens with self-learning algorithms that bring new insights to light. This is an intervention of particular importance that goes far beyond the purely manual evaluation of data.”
Among other things, journalists and a criminal defense lawyer, who are supported by the Society for Freedom Rights, had complained. They fear that they, too, will be targeted by law enforcement because of their work. They consider this unconstitutional.
“As a lawyer, for example, you are in contact with a lot of clients who are targeted by the police. Journalists talk to people when they do research,” says Lincoln. “All of these contacts establish cross-connections because the police can report: Who was someone in contact with? Who lives in the same house? Who was at the same meeting?”
Compatible with fundamental rights protection?
Ultimately, personality profiles could be created in this way – from innocent citizens. According to the plaintiffs, this violates the fundamental right to informational self-determination. During the oral hearing last December, the Hessian Interior Minister Peter Beuth CDU defended the use of the software.
The state of Hesse is a pioneer, the software has been used there since 2017. “We need an analysis platform with which we can better compile, read and analyze the existing data already stored by the police. In order to then be able to avert dangers for the population.” As an example, Beuth named terrorist attacks that could be prevented with the help of the software.
Now the Federal Constitutional Court will decide whether the police can continue to use the computer program. It is unlikely that the judges will ban the deployment completely after the course of the hearing in December. Most likely, however, they will demand legal changes and additions so that the protection of fundamental rights remains guaranteed.