Overview
- The government approved the package on Wednesday, sending two draft laws to the Bundestag and Bundesrat that would let federal police run automated data analysis and match suspect photos against publicly available images online.
- The plan authorizes agencies to build and train their own artificial intelligence models, including using real police data, to spot links across cases and identify suspects faster.
- Officials say the tools apply only to serious crimes, require judicial orders in most cases, and leave decisions in criminal cases to human judges and prosecutors.
- Civil-rights groups, legal associations, and opposition lawmakers warn of mass surveillance and deep privacy intrusions, noting that public social media photos could be swept into searches and pointing to a fast-growing petition against the bills.
- The drafts permit biometric checks by providers outside the EU in defined cases, which critics say could sidestep EU safeguards and entrench dependence on private platforms such as Palantir.