20260506 Überwachungspläne

Surveillance Plans

Almost 4 weeks ago, we already published an article titled “The Road to a Surveillance State,” we warned against the black-red coalition’s encroachments on the fundamental rights of all people in Germany. Tens of thousands of people have also signed a petition urging the government to refrain from such actions. On the contrary, policymakers are becoming increasingly brazen. Campact and AlgorithmWatch write to us on this matter:

Dear supporters of the petition “Stop Dobrindt’s Surveillance Plans!” by WeAct and AlgorithmWatch,
just over a week ago, we launched our petition against Alexander Dobrindt’s (CSU) surveillance plans. Since then, around 150,000 people have signed — far more than for any other petition...

But the situation has come to a head: On April 29, the cabinet simply waved Dobrindt’s draft bills through.
Resistance within the government? None whatsoever.
On the contrary: Federal Minister of Justice Stefanie Hubig (SPD) pushed her own draft through the cabinet on the same day, paving the way for mass AI surveillance and automated data analysis — just as the anti-democratic U.S. company Palantir operates.^[1] The draft jeopardizes the SPD’s crucial success in having so far prevented the nationwide deployment of Palantir. ^[2]
We must change this!

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (AlgorithmWatch Supervisory Board member) describes what else is at stake. In an interview with Der Freitag, the former Justice Minister, who resigned in protest against state surveillance measures, doesn’t mince words:

"The plan drove me up the wall because it takes on a whole new dimension compared to anything we’ve seen before. Of course, in Germany we’ve placed great emphasis over decades on introducing new investigative methods.
"But so far, we have always carefully examined the requirements under the rule of law. We have not provided data to foreign companies on such a large scale. If we do that, then we will no longer be able to monitor retention periods, for example. Then we can forget about all data protection regulations."

In the next step, the drafts will go to the Bundestag. There, the SPD members of parliament in particular will have to decide: Will they support their own minister’s surveillance plans — or will they show Dobrindt and Hubig the red card?

[1] „Im Kabinett beschlossen: Polizei- und Strafverfolgungsbehörden stärken”, Bundesregierung, 29. April 2026
[2] „Erfolg: Kein Palantir für Bundesbehörden”, Campact, 22. Februar 2026

Click here for the petition

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)