Trojan scare shows need for privacy permeates Germany

By Niels C Sorrells Oct 11, 2011, 15:30 GMT

Berlin - It's no secret: Germans like their privacy.

Which makes it all the more surprising that German officials have once again run afoul of their compatriots' strong desire to make sure they - and only they - have access to their personal data.

The most recent scandal involves a piece of spyware that several German state police departments have used in their investigations over the last three years to scan internet communications.

While perfectly legal in that sense, the allegation is that at least some investigators - fingers point to the southern state of Bavaria - went a step across the legal line and used an option in the programme to grab data off private computers.

'Our analysis revealed once again that law enforcement agencies will overstep their authority if not watched carefully,' wrote the Chaos Computer Club, a group of hackers that publicized the spyware's existence over the weekend.

'In this case functions clearly intended for breaking the law were implemented in this malware: they were meant for uploading and executing arbitrary code on the targeted system,' it continued.

The news spread across Germany on Monday. After a federal denial of use of the programme, several states are now investigating whether their agents used the system. Politicians are calling for heads to roll and for more oversight of such investigations.

But the issue is hardly new to Germany, a country where privacy has been confirmed as a constitutional right and, despite efforts by companies and governments to test the limits, privacy eventually seems to win out.

'Germans are certainly very security focused,' said Christian Spahr, a spokesman for media law with Bitkom, an IT industry association. 'There are always critical questions about what is being done with their computers.'

Thus, when Google tried to bring its Street View system to Germany - allowing close up views of house fronts to accompany its 3D maps - it was forced to back down and abide by a ruling that it could only publish images of homes if all residents were in agreement.

The result: hundreds of thousands of house views are pixellated for anyone trying to take a virtual stroll through a German city.

And it's hardly the first time the police have run afoul of the country's preference for privacy. Officials in Dresden are still reeling from a scandal earlier this year in which police tracked attendees at a demonstration by noting mobile phones in use in the area during the protest.

This strong protection of privacy goes back to a constitutional court ruling that came after opposition to what German citizens considered an overly invasive census poll. The ruling implemented a right to privacy, forcing police investigators to become increasingly inventive in their work.

Thus, without a court order, there is no legal way to listen in or spy upon a person in his own home. But, telephone surveillance has exploded as conversations transmitted outside a home are considered beyond a person's 'privacy sphere.'

'This case is certainly an invitation to keep many experts busy. First we have to verify whether there was even a violation of the law and who was responsible for it,' said Spahr.

The key, he said, is to make sure laws are being obeyed while making sure average citizens can have faith that their internet, and other, communications are safe.

'We think it's a positive that higher standards are used in Germany,' said Spahr. 'For companies it's important to note that we have higher standards in Germany, since that can have an economic impact.'