Quick Freeze: Activists warn against data retention through the back door

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) is relying on Quick Freeze to freeze connection and location data for criminal prosecution in order to prevent further data retention. However, civil libertarians believe that this approach goes too far in principle. In a statement on Buschmann's draft bill, the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung (Data Retention Working Group) demands that Quick Freeze should not apply retroactively and more or less only serve to select or filter user traces that have already been collected. Rather, the procedure should only initiate the start of data collection and storage, i.e. be "forward-looking".

Above all, the "now customary 7-day storage of IP addresses must be explicitly replaced", the AK-Vorrat demanded in a statement on Monday. "Otherwise we will have data retention through the back door for everyone." Buschmann, on the other hand, explicitly states that providers already store user traces for operational purposes anyway. The AK-Vorrat counters this: If a judge's ruling gives a starting signal with the preemptive quick freeze, then the access provider must at that point "start with an empty database quasi tabula rasa for storage on individuals". Otherwise, it could be assumed that user traces would be logged across the board.

According to the Ministry of Justice's draft law, the "potential significance as evidence" alone should justify the storage of traffic data, the civil rights activists further criticize. This raises fears that public prosecutors and local courts could have the user traces of all citizens stored "comprehensively and routinely" because there is the mere possibility that they could prove useful for certain investigations in the future. In the course of investigations into gang theft with changing crime vehicles, the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt (Oder), for example, ordered the storage of all vehicle license plates on Brandenburg freeways in "recording mode" for a period of two years from 2019. Justification: This is the only way that "other vehicles that only become known later and other investigative findings" can be assigned.

"Grand coalition" in favor of data retention

"According to this logic and endless argumentation, there is also the threat of total security orders" for connection and location information, warns the AK-Vorrat. The planned time limit on storage requirements would not prevent misuse, as such orders could be issued at any time "in the initial proceedings or in various other proceedings". Buschmann also does not want – to implement a "login trap", as agreed in the coalition agreement –, which could be used to convict offenders online, for example on social networks. This mechanism would be a good alternative to Quick Freeze.

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) continues to push for at least the retention of IP addresses, despite a government agreement for Quick Freeze. The SPD parliamentary group wants to examine such a step "with an open mind". The Bundesrat is also pushing: The states led by the CDU and CSU in particular have stopped parts of a "security package" already passed by the Bundestag because it does not go far enough for them in terms of surveillance powers. They believe that logging IP addresses without cause is essential. The federal government is still considering whether to set up a mediation committee.

(nie)