Overview
- The federal cabinet is to approve a roughly 700-page intelligence reform bill this Wednesday that expands powers of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV).
- For the first time the draft permits limited active interventions by the BND, including defensive or disruptive cyber actions often called 'hackbacks,' and broadens online searches, device searches and use of AI for data analysis.
- Control of many intrusive measures would move to an upgraded Unabhängiger Kontrollrat (UKR) that will gain pre-approval authority over surveillance and take on data-protection oversight now held by the federal data-protection commissioner.
- Civil-rights groups, the data-protection commissioner and opposition figures warn the package risks deep incursions into fundamental rights, weaken external privacy supervision and could be partly unconstitutional if not tightened.
- The bill responds to judged increases in espionage and sabotage and to a Constitutional Court deadline to clarify BND surveillance rules but faces likely legal challenges and detailed parliamentary scrutiny before it becomes law.