telecommunications
Data retention: Buschmann submits draft
A storage system with more than a petabyte of capacity is in a data center of the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office. photo
© Matthias Balk/dpa
After the judgment of the European Court of Justice, an alternative must be found – the previous regulation on data retention is no longer an option. Minister of Justice Buschmann is therefore relying on a new procedure.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) has presented a draft alternative to the controversial data retention. The project went to the other departments of the federal government for approval, some of which have reservations about the quick freeze procedure he proposed.
“This creates a balance between the interest in effective criminal prosecution and the interest of citizens in the protection of their personal data and the confidentiality of their communication,” says the draft.
In September, the European Court of Justice set strict limits on the storage of telecommunications data to investigate criminal offenses in Germany. The judges ruled that the currently suspended data retention regulation in Germany was incompatible with EU law. At the same time, however, they explained that it is possible to retain IP addresses in order to combat serious crime.
Faeser continues to favor data retention
With the quick freeze procedure, telecommunications providers are obliged to store data on individual users for a certain period of time if there is an initial suspicion – so to speak, “freeze”. However, this should be possible in the case of serious crimes such as manslaughter, extortion or child abuse. In addition, a judge must agree.
After all, Quick Freeze would have one advantage for the investigators: If a judge ordered the “freezing” of the data on a specific suspected case, connection and location data would be available in addition to the IP address. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) and several state interior ministers had recently spoken out in favor of a different variant – in contrast to Buschmann and the FDP. They pleaded for a constitutional design of data retention.