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The German authorities seem to have a higher desire to push for a legal basis of the online searches of personal computers in Germany, despite the Federal Supreme Court decision in February 2007 that, according to the German Code of Criminal Procedure, decided that online police snooping was illegal.
Wolfgang Schäuble, The German Federal Minister of the Interior, has asked again to adopt stricter security rules that are essential in the fight against terror. Schäuble said that terrorists were beginning to set their sights on Germany and "These days the Internet is the place where terrorists from all over the world arrange to meet". This is why it is essential to make the online searches of computers a legal possibility for the German law enforcement.
The online searches of computers by the secret services have been a reality in Germany since 2005, following an order to do so by then-Interior Minister Otto Schily. The statement was admitted by the Chancellor's Office that did not reveal the number of searches. The German Government stated that it did not see any breach of the privacy of telecommunications in these actions.
Gisela Piltz, spokesperson for home affairs from the FDP in the Bundestag, who forced the government to admit the searches, said that "the cat is out of the bag".
The Social Democratic Party has accused Mr. Schäuble of engaging in a "hypocritical debate" and the new approach is like "a recipe for asking for trouble".
The German Supreme Court president, Hans-Jürgen Papier, told the Frankfurt Press Club that the politicians were going too far in asking for greater security and they were forgetting that the state is also obliged of ensuring civil rights.
Minister of the Interior renews call for legal online PC search option
(4.05.2007)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/89294
German government admits it is already conducting online searches
(26.04.2007)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/88895
EDRI-gram: Online police searches found illegal in Germany (14.02.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.3/online-searches
EDRI-gram: Proposal of computers online searching in Germany (20.12.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.24/computer-online-searching