The German Federal Cabinet today concluded a government draft bill for a new law on Blanket Data Retention which should take effect before the summer break. From the perspective of eco – Association of the German Internet Industry, this draft legislation raises many technical and legal questions and in its current form would not hold water in the anticipated constitutional challenge. “The draft is in many places simply careless, and it was obviously formulated without the necessary technical understanding,” said Oliver Süme, Director of Policy and Law at eco.
What has been produced is a legislative text which the affected companies will not be able to implement in this form. A particularly large number of open questions arise in conjunction with the retention of IP addresses and the implementation of the security requirements. “The Federal Government is working in great haste and priority to conclude a law with serious consequences for citizens and industry. However, whether this law is constitutional or technically feasible seems to play a subordinate role, which from our perspective is paradoxical,” said Süme. “We appeal to the Members of Parliament, to whom this draft bill will now be presented, to show accountability in the forthcoming consultation process and to thoroughly address the fundamental obstacles to implementation.”
Major obstacles to implementation
Particular attention should be paid to the new regulation on the retention of IP addresses. Here, the providers are obligated to compile a data base of all communication connections, which would make the building of user profiles possible. It is also unclear how the requirement of the storage of data on data processing systems which are not connected to the Internet should function, and how mass queries, for example radio cell queries, should be carried out with the application of the asymmetrical encryption technique recommended by the German Federal Constitutional Court.
Further information on the legal and technical problems of the draft legislation for Blanket Data Retention can be found here.
