Digital dragnet: Ministry of Justice wants biometric internet matching

Contents

What Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) is currently presenting as “modern investigative tools” reads like a blueprint for a mass surveillance infrastructure to civil rights advocates. A draft bill published on Thursday from Hubig's department to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO) provides for giving law enforcement authorities two powerful digital instruments: automated biometric internet matching and the use of AI-supported analysis platforms.

Behind the technocratic terms lies a turning point: for the first time, the police are to be allowed to systematically compare the biometric characteristics of suspects or witnesses with the gigantic flood of images on the publicly accessible internet.

The planned Paragraph 98d StPO, which is to regulate biometric internet matching, is particularly significant. The ministry's official interpretation is that only “existing data” would be searched and no new super-database would be created. Matching with publicly available real-time data, for example from a webcam, is excluded. An “express order” from a public prosecutor in individual cases is required – not even a judge's authorization.

Biometrics Matching: Illusion of “Targeted” Search

Experts like Kilian Vieth-Ditlmann from the organization AlgorithmWatch consider these restrictions to be a farce: automated matching of millions of web images in fractions of a second is technically impossible without first creating a structured, searchable database of all available faces. Anyone who wants to introduce such a tool must inevitably inventory the internet biometrically, warns Vieth-Ditlmann on the basis of an expert opinion. This would also include private vacation photos as well as recordings of demonstrations and random background passers-by on social media profiles.

This would put the project in direct conflict with the EU's AI Regulation: the AI Act prohibits the untargeted retrieval of facial images for the creation of databases. The Scientific Services of the Bundestag has already confirmed that a systematic match without such a pre-processed database is technically hardly feasible. Nevertheless, the ministry maintains that it is only a digital acceleration of the “manual visual inspection.” For AlgorithmWatch, this is a dangerous euphemism for building an infrastructure that heralds the end of anonymity in public spaces.

AI Analysis: Investigations in the Algorithmic Black Box

The second core component, automated data analysis according to Paragraph 98e StPO of the draft, is also intended to end the “unconnected coexistence” of police databases. Here, the ministry apparently wants to circumvent the strict hurdles set by the Federal Constitutional Court, which in 2023 declared the use of analysis software from US provider Palantir in Hesse and Hamburg to be largely unconstitutional. Although Hubig promises that “assessments and decisions” will continue to be made solely by investigators. However, experts fear a creeping automation of the judiciary.

When algorithms determine which cross-connections between different investigations are marked as “relevant,” police work enters a black box. Software biases or faulty data links could lead to innocent people being targeted by authorities without the derivation of suspicion being fully traceable in retrospect. Since the draft law would also allow the use of AI systems under “clearly defined conditions,” there is a risk that investigative authority will shift away from the officer towards opaque software modules.

Vague Terms and Risk of a Dam Break

The Ministry of Justice justifies the planned infringements on fundamental rights with the need to remain capable of action in cases of terrorism and serious crime. However, the definition of the “considerable importance” of criminal offenses, which is cited as a prerequisite for biometric matching, is considered very broad in legal circles. What politicians expect to be a “security gain” is seen by civil rights advocates as a dam break: once the technology is installed and legally legitimized, the desire to use the new tools for politically undesirable behavior or less serious offenses is likely to grow.

According to its own statements, the Ministry of Justice developed the draft simultaneously with a proposal from the Federal Ministry of the Interior for comparable powers in federal police law. These would then apply, for example, to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Police. The coordinated approach underscores the federal government's determination to digitally rearm in this area. Länder and associations now have until April 2nd to submit their statements before the drafts are to be passed by the Federal Cabinet and then go to the Bundestag and Bundesrat.

The initiative builds on a debate that already divided the country in the fall of 2024. At that time, the federal government failed, partly due to resistance from the Bundesrat, as part of the so-called security package. While relevant measures in the area of migration were passed by the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, the latter stopped the police powers for big data analyses. With the new attempt, Hubig and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) want to permanently and comprehensively anchor these powers that failed at the time.

(vbr)