Germany
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Privacy Pulse
Notable privacy and internet-freedom events from the past four years, most recent first. Tap any entry for more.
Criminal Prosecutions for Political Memes
Authorities pursued prosecutions against people making memes about politicians under existing insult laws, raising concerns about online speech in Germany.
Justice Ministry Publishes 'Quick Freeze' Bill Instead of Data Retention
Germany's Justice Ministry published a draft bill introducing a case-by-case 'quick freeze' preservation order for traffic data in place of mandatory data retention, after EU and German courts repeatedly struck down prior retention regimes; the bill lapsed when the governing coalition collapsed and was never passed by the Bundestag.
Federal Constitutional Court Strikes Down BKA Data Storage Powers
Germany's Bundesverfassungsgericht ruled that Federal Criminal Police Office powers to covertly surveil contact persons and to store data in the police information network were in part incompatible with the right to informational self-determination, ordering reform by 31 July 2025.
Germany Rejects EU Chat Control Proposal
Germany publicly opposed the EU's Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR, or 'Chat Control') that would have mandated client-side scanning of private messages, helping block the measure in the Council.
Constitutional Court Strikes Down Police Data-Mining Laws in Hesse and Hamburg
The Federal Constitutional Court held that provisions of the Hesse and Hamburg police laws authorising automated data analysis - in Hesse, run on Palantir's HessenData platform - were unconstitutional for lacking safeguards; Hamburg's provision was void and Hesse's could apply only until 30 September 2023.
BSI Warns Against Kaspersky Antivirus
Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) issued a formal warning against using Kaspersky antivirus software following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, citing risks of Russian state coercion.
BKA Secretly Bought NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware
Reporting by Zeit, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR revealed that the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) had bought a restricted version of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware in late 2019 and was already using it, prompting parliamentary and legal scrutiny over the legality of its deployment.
Germany Launches BundID Central Government Login
The German federal government launched what is now BundID (originally Nutzerkonto Bund) as a single account for identifying and authenticating citizens across federal e-government services, part of its Online Access Act implementation; it is a login account, not a digital identity wallet.
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