The Federal Data Protection Commissioner considers Quick Freeze to be the “less intrusive” variant than storing IP addresses without cause.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber has spoken out in favor of dispensing with data retention without cause. “I clearly prefer Quick Freeze,” Kelber told Handelsblatt. Data retention need no longer be discussed. With “Quick Freeze”, data is only stored for a short time if there is an initial suspicion.
Last September, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) set strict limits on the storage of telecommunications data to investigate criminal offenses in Germany, but declared the storage of only IP addresses for investigations to be justifiable. Data retention has not been used in practice in this country for 13 years.
The traffic light coalition disagrees about a new investigative tool. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) insists on storing IP addresses to fight crime.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP), on the other hand, presented a draft bill for data storage using the quick freeze procedure at the end of October. According to this, telecommunications providers should be obliged to “freeze” data on individual users for a certain period of time if there is an initial suspicion. In addition to the IP address, the investigators would then also have access to connection and location data.
Buschmann speaks of the “legal zombie” of data retention, which he now wants to remove from German law.
Federal data protection officer Kelber: Also take into account ongoing monitoring
Federal data protection officer Kelber therefore considers “Quick Freeze” to be the “less intrusive” variant. It cannot be about “enlarging the heap of data even further and placing everyone under general suspicion”. Even if data are available, it sometimes takes months or years for them to be evaluated. “That would be the area where you have to get better.”
Kelber also believes that a “monitoring accounting” is necessary. Because “Quick Freeze” or the permanent storage of IP addresses would already be added to the existing surveillance. “If we want citizens to live out their freedoms, consciously and unconsciously, then politics must not allow a constant feeling of surveillance to arise.”
The traffic light coalition agreement states: “The interventions by the state in civil liberties must always be well justified and considered in their overall effect.” The SPD, Greens and FDP had therefore announced a “monitoring total bill”. So far, however, it is not available.
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