Overview
- An unpublished government reply to a parliamentary inquiry says purchasing personal data from brokers could be appropriate case by case and characterizes advertising databases as publicly accessible sources.
- The same reply declines to disclose whether police or intelligence services actually obtain such data, citing reasons of state welfare and the risk of revealing methods to adversaries.
- A confidential Bundestag Scientific Service report indicates such buying is becoming part of agencies’ information management and warns it could bypass oversight and limits that apply to surveillance.
- The federal data protection commissioner and legal scholars say there is no statutory basis for these purchases, with one professor deeming them clearly unlawful.
- Investigations describe a global market for meter-precise app data, including an offer of 3.6 billion location points from 11 million German phones, as opposition figures demand transparency and a legal ban.