Germany Rushes to Expand Biometric Surveillance

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Germany is a leader in privacy and data protection, with many Germans being particularly sensitive to the processing of their personal data – owing to the country’s totalitarian history and the role of surveillance in both Nazi Germany and East Germany.

So, it is disappointing that the German government is trying to push through Parliament, at record speed, a “security package” that would increase biometric surveillance at an unprecedented scale. The proposed measures contravene the government’s own coalition agreement, and undermine European law and the German constitution.

In response to a knife-stabbing in the West-German town of Solingen in late-August, the government has introduced a so-called “security package” consisting of a bouquet of measures to tighten asylum rules and introduce new powers for law enforcement authorities.

Among them, three stand out due to their possibly disastrous effect on fundamental rights online. 

Biometric surveillance  

The German government wants to allow law enforcement authorities to identify suspects by comparing their biometric data (audio, video, and image data) to all data publicly available on the internet. Beyond the host of harms related to facial recognition software, this would mean that any photos or videos uploaded to the internet would become part of the government’s surveillance infrastructure.

This would include especially sensitive material, such as pictures taken at political protests or other contexts directly connected to the exercise of fundament

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