Solingen: Police to carry out facial and voice recognition online

The German government is stepping up its plans for online surveillance. In addition to the announcement at the end of August to subject photos and videos from the Internet to facial recognition by the police, videos and audio recordings are now also to be screened using voice recognition.

This is according to documents available to heise online. Following the deadly knife attack in Solingen, the governing parties have divided their "security package" into two parts: a draft amendment to the asylum system and one to "improve the fight against terrorism". Both papers, which are available to heise online, have been forwarded by the executive to the traffic light parliamentary groups as a "formulation aid". In terms of digital policy, the draft for a new chapter in the already constantly expanding fight against terrorism is significant.

According to the draft, law enforcement authorities are to compare "biometric data on faces and voices" with information from social networks, for example, not only for criminal prosecution but also for the purposes of averting danger. "The aim is in particular to identify and locate suspected terrorists and suspects." For example, investigators could compare photographs of a target with IS propaganda videos to obtain information on wanted persons "as well as accomplices or backers".

The corresponding paragraphs, which are to be added to the laws for the BKA, the Federal Police and the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO), do not only refer to terrorism. Rather, a subsequent comparison of biometric data is to be permitted because of the broad catalog in Section 100a of the Code of Criminal Procedure. This starts with murder and manslaughter, but ranges from tax offenses, computer fraud and receiving stolen goods to everyday crime. Further requirements should be that "the offense is also serious in individual cases" and that "establishing the identity or determining the whereabouts would otherwise be significantly more difficult or futile".

Live biometric surveillance should be prevented

A comparison with data "from publicly accessible real-time photo and video files on the internet is excluded", writes the government. According to the explanatory memorandum, this refers to both classic live streams and recordings from webcams in publicly accessible locations. On the other hand, photo and video files "which are transmitted to the internet by third parties against or without the consent of the person concerned or which reveal information involuntarily" are to be screened. Critics warn of "all-round biometric surveillance" and a breach of the coalition agreement.

The governing parties also want to allow the automated analysis of police data by the BKA and the Federal Police, supported by artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the testing and training of data for AI applications for big data analyses in the style of Palantir & Co. To this end, law enforcement officers will be able to merge and look for the large number of police databases for the first time. Data protectionists and legal experts have been warning for years that the presumption of innocence would be lost as a result. The package is expected to be discussed in the Bundestag for the first time this week. Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge announced that she intends to examine the drafts "in great detail", particularly "regarding issues relevant to constitutional and European law".

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