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Talks are still ongoing at EU level to reintroduce data retention. The old federal government of the CDU / CSU and SPD supports the plans and calls for more comprehensive data collection in a current position paper.

That reports the mirrors, the magazine has the secret classified paper. That sums up the preliminary position of a member state and is something like the basis for the further discussions at EU level, which have intensified since the EU Commission in the summer brought new suggestions into play.

Data retention for emails and IP addresses

Accordingly, the currently only executive federal government is committed to reintroducing data retention across Europe. In addition, not only connection and traffic data should be recorded in telecommunications, but also the corresponding data in video telephony, video conferences and messenger services such as WhatsApp.

Data retention is to be expanded to include e-mails as well as IP addresses and other data in order to be able to identify users on the Internet. According to the Spiegel report, the letter says: “In order to enable the identification of Internet users, it is necessary to save not only the IP address, but also the time stamp and, where relevant, the assigned port number.“

The retention of data as well as the retrieval of data should therefore also be permitted across the board for the “protection of national security” and not only for certain groups of people and regions, as the ECJ ruling of 2016 provides. In the ranks of the old grand coalition, it was hoped, according to the Spiegel report, that the ECJ would soften the case law again. The EU Commission is also advocating this. This wants, for example, data both in places with “above average crime“As well as in”affluent residential areas“As well as in places like schools, shopping malls or at demonstration participants.

New position expected with new coalition

Talks at EU level are still ongoing. It is not yet known when a result will be achieved. It will also be interesting to see what effects a potential traffic light coalition will have. The SPD supported the previous demands. With the Greens and the FDP, however, two parties would move into the federal government that decidedly reject data retention. So it says in that paper after the explorations, the parties wanted to strengthen civil rights. A “holistic view“The state’s powers to intervene and a general overhaul of the security architecture.

Alternatives to data retention, such as the quick freeze process, could then come up again, in which the storage of data is only ordered when a criminal offense occurs. The grand coalition has so far always rejected such procedures.

In Germany, the law on data retention currently only exists practically on paper. The regulation was suspended from the start. After a Order of the Federal Administrative Court the ECJ must now examine whether the German law is compatible with EU law. Experts believe this is not the case.