Federal Trojans at BND: civil rights activists take case to Human Rights Court

Germany's surveillance laws violate human rights. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) have made this accusation to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The legal dispute over the law for the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), which was last amended by the Bundestag in 2021, thus continues.

Karlsruhe did not want to review

The two organizations are challenging a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court not to accept a constitutional complaint against the reform of the BND's surveillance powers. The Strasbourg judges are now to rule that the BND law violates the rights to privacy and freedom of the press enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and the associated secrecy of telecommunications.

With the majority of the then grand coalition, the Bundestag granted the BND the authority to hack foreign switching systems, telecommunications infrastructure and IT systems of providers, among other things. This allows the intelligence service to penetrate the computers and cell phones of foreigners abroad using technical means such as the federal Trojan and carry out secret online searches.

Serious intrusions, major gaps in protection

Since the reform, the secret service, which is actually responsible for foreign countries, has also been allowed to spy on people within Germany as far as so-called machine-to-machine communication is concerned. This recording of communication between two technical devices is practically "not linked to any prerequisites", the GFF criticizes. "By evaluating metadata from health apps or online banking, for example, it allows potentially far-reaching conclusions to be drawn about the physical and mental condition, financial strength or behavior of those affected." The amendment was prompted by the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court on BND mass surveillance, which was won by RSF and GFF.

GFF procedural coordinator Bijan Moini regretted that the constitutional judges no longer wanted to examine the arguments put forward in view of the standards they themselves had set for the BND, "because the law contains more violations of fundamental rights than ever before". It is about "serious intrusions into privacy such as state trojans". RSF Managing Director Anja Osterhaus emphasized that there are also "serious protection gaps in the potential surveillance of media professionals that need to be closed".

(ds)