A real interior minister move ?! For a reform of the Telecommunications Act (TKG), Interior Minister Horst Seehofer demands that users of messengers and e-mails be obliged to verify their data. Further changes could mean encroachments on the fundamental right.
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Wish list contains 15 items: Seehofer has now sent a 15-point wish list for the TKG amendment to the government factions of the CDU / CSU and SPD. According to him, these should still be included in the new draft law. According to one of the points, an obligation for telecommunications providers is to be introduced, verified “identification features [von Nutzern] to collect ”and forward them to security authorities if necessary. In individual cases, user anonymity could thus be revoked in order to investigate criminal offenses. This comes from a paper (LINK: Formulation aidBMI.pdf (posteo.de)) of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which was published by the email provider Posteo.
Demands go further
In addition, according to Seehofer, there should be an obligation to cooperate for providers of internet access or signal transmission services, to support security authorities in installing state Trojans on suspects’ end devices and, for example, to provide information during clandestine online searches. The existing powers to use state Trojans had been difficult to implement in the past.
According to the BMI paper, so-called “contributors” to telecommunications services, such as hospitals, hotels or internet cafés, should in future be obliged to store internet user data and, if necessary, to hand them over. In addition, among other things, the approval of precise cell phone location is being considered.
Messenger, e-mail programs and video services affected
Despite high costs in the “high double-digit million range” for the telecommunications providers concerned, the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) sees a proportionality in the planned procedure, as this would “significantly” improve the prosecution. Both messenger services (e.g. WhatsApp, Facebook, Threema, Telegram, Signal, etc.) as well as e-mail providers and video call services such as Skype or Zoom would be affected by the identity verification measures.
A similar approach is required for social media
In the past, the Federal and State Conference of Interior Ministers (IMK) required an identification requirement for social networks. After that, it should still be possible to use pseudonyms on the Internet, but proof of identity should still be deposited with the provider, said Lower Saxony Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD). The Federal SPD supports this project and has already described similar points in a draft of its election program for the Bundestag election.
Data on the silver platter
Even if the data may only be collected for criminal prosecution, according to Posteo it is a question of personal data storage, which would result in a fundamental change in the use of online services. The obligation to store personal data, possibly with an identity card, would provide all companies, especially advertising-financed services, with verified personal data “on a silver platter”.
Chaos Computer Club sees restriction of fundamental rights
Linus Neumann, spokesman for the Chaos Computer Club, sees the project as an “attack on the freedom of communication for all and freedom of expression for minorities” as well as on the free Internet and European values as a whole. It is an attempt to restrict fundamental rights.
Unchecked adoption of the template?
A four-hour parliamentary hearing on the planned reform of the TKG took place on Monday. However, since Seehofer’s 15-point wish list is not an official part of the present government draft, the experts present were unable to comment on this. The proposed law has long been highly controversial and the desired addition to the BMI could now be made almost unchecked if the coalition should adopt it in whole or in part.
Those: TKG amendment: Seehofer demands online identification through the back door | heise online
Article image: Shutterstock / Von photocosmos1
Guest author: Annika Hommer from “Something to do with writing„
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