Berlin Approves New Expansion of Police Surveillance Powers (reclaimthenet.org) 62
Berlin's regional parliament has passed a far-reaching overhaul of its "security" law, giving police new authority to conduct both digital and physical surveillance. From a report: The CDU-SPD coalition, supported by AfD votes, approved the reform of the General Security and Public Order Act (ASOG), changing the limits that once protected Berliners from intrusive policing. Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) argued that the legislation modernizes police work for an era of encrypted communication, terrorism, and cybercrime. But it undermines core civil liberties and reshapes the relationship between citizens and the state.
One of the most controversial elements is the expansion of police powers under paragraphs 26a and 26b. These allow investigators to hack into computers and smartphones under the banner of "source telecommunications surveillance" and "online searches." Police may now install state-developed spyware, known as trojans, on personal devices to intercept messages before or after encryption.
If the software cannot be deployed remotely, the law authorizes officers to secretly enter a person's home to gain access. This enables police to install surveillance programs directly on hardware without the occupant's knowledge. Berlin had previously resisted such practices, but now joins other federal states that permit physical entry to install digital monitoring tools.
One of the most controversial elements is the expansion of police powers under paragraphs 26a and 26b. These allow investigators to hack into computers and smartphones under the banner of "source telecommunications surveillance" and "online searches." Police may now install state-developed spyware, known as trojans, on personal devices to intercept messages before or after encryption.
If the software cannot be deployed remotely, the law authorizes officers to secretly enter a person's home to gain access. This enables police to install surveillance programs directly on hardware without the occupant's knowledge. Berlin had previously resisted such practices, but now joins other federal states that permit physical entry to install digital monitoring tools.
Well... (Score:3)
This will be great for Haiku, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD installs, there's not the remotest possibility there'll be binaries for these. Not because the software couldn't be ported, but because the sorts of people politicians hire to write software would never be able to figure out the installer.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Funny)
This enables police to install surveillance programs directly on hardware without the occupant's knowledge.
You might wake up to the smell of bacon only to find a cop installing a key logger dongle on your DragonflyBSD machine.
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Re:Well... (Score:4, Informative)
This is illegal in Germany.
The last sentence of the article:
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Not any more.
Re: Well... (Score:2)
Nah, not bacon. Bratwurst.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
From there, it can capture keylogs and also do who knows what else, and using a relatively obscure OS won't save you since SMM accesses the hardware directly. If the attacker has physical access to the hardware (or can intercept a hardware shipment on the way to your house), they can "upgrade" your device's UEFI to one that includes government malware. The NSA did it by intercepting shipments of servers and routers btw: https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com] (oh yeah, I forgot: they can infect your router too).
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You can still make it much harder for them. Physically disabled the write pin on the UEFI flash memory chip, for example. Some vendors let you require a password to upgrade the firmware.
None of it is undefeatable, but you have to consider who you adversary is. If it's just the cops and their IT people, it probably won't take much to thwart them.
There are also more passive measures like making sure you have decent CCTV coverage, so they can't do easily sneak in.
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There are also more passive measures like making sure you have decent CCTV coverage, so they can't do easily sneak in.
Particularly one logging to the cloud in another country in near realtime.
If your case is bad enough that there's international cooperation in place to deal with that, well, you're so fucked.
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First of all, this won't prevent malware installation if the hardware shipment is intercepted, and not all consumer hardware has the features you described (computers and routers).
Yes, you can only buy devices that have those features that protect the UEFI (or not leave any electronic devices in your house) and only buy from physcial store shelves so there is no h
Re: Well... (Score:2)
Re: Well... (Score:2)
Wtf (Score:3)
Re: Wtf - DDR2 (Score:2)
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First you create the problem. (in this case immigration of a large percentage of barbaric males who are religiously justified to rape underaged girls because their holy text says it's ok)
Then you offer the solution to the problem you created! And that solution includes an unchecked blanket increase in authority with a simultaneous reduction in liberty of the citizenry.
We all know what happens next. History is chock-fucking-full of examples.
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simple: fear. they are afraid of the people, because they have been systematically betraying them and their house of mirrors is about to shatter.
Re:Wtf (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not hard to understand. Three things have been happening all at the same time in Europe, and each one of these are, all by itself, of the kind that prompts governments to go into authoritarian mode. All three put together make this exponentially more the case:
a) Risk of Russian invasion.
Russia has already been attacking NATO countries via invasion of their airspace via drone fleets and military aircraft, plus several cases of cutting oceanic data cables, and other forms of harassment, including explicit verbal threats against several members.
Preparing for war requires managing citizens morale. Completely free flow of information is detrimental to this effect, since either true of false (propaganda) content telling citizens the war is going bad can become a self-fulling prophecy. Hence, governments see the need to start implementing all the technology needed for effective control of information flow right before and during a war if it happens.
b) Rise of internal threats.
First and foremost, the far-right parties on those countries have been growing in popularity and power, being financed as a 5th column by Russia. If victorious, they will fracture the EU, weakening them all against aggressors. Additionally, European leaders fear losing power and, in the extreme, losing their lives and freedom to far-right extremists.
As such the see the curbing of those propaganda efforts as absolutely necessary for the survival of their, well, everything.
b) Betrayal by a former major ally.
The US has sided with the enemy of Europe, Russia, on a number of fronts, having been undermining the European effort in the buffer zone between Europe and Russia (aka Ukraine), helping to fund the above internal threats, relentlessly pressuring European countries on all economic fronts, and actively threatening to invade and conquer European territories, meaning what was a risk of a war on a single front has grown into a serious risk of a two-fronts war. Additionally, the US controls most of the information exchange technology Europe uses, meaning it can advance the propaganda mentioned above way more effectively than Russia alone could, and get intelligence on Europe at levels Russia alone absolutely wouldn't be able to.
As such, transferring control of information channels from US national security associates to European ones became urgent, with an immediate need to reduce as much as possible the power the US has to advance those contrary goals, which again requires controlling information flows.
Hence the recent push.
Notice I don't agree with any of the above. I'm of the "the best counter to bad speech is more speech" school of thought myself. But that's what I see as the core motivations behind this movement.
As for the US, it's trying to implement a Fascist political regime. As any such movement, it uses the tools of freedom to raise, then once in power destroys those tools. As such, what we're observing over there is much simpler than what's going on Europe, even if the end result, if it arrives at its goal, is pretty much the same.
And other countries are following so many variations of the same issues.
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Why on Earth would Russia want to conquer Germany? They're bankrupt, they've deindustrialized and they have no resources. Only a very stupid person could believe that.
Also why do Europeans feel entitled to US military protection into perpetuity? You can pay your own bills now.
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Why on Earth would Russia want to conquer Germany?
They don't want to, but they want to cause the impression they want to. The more afraid individual NATO countries are they're going to be invaded, the more the invest in their own military strength, and refuse to share their stockpile of weapons and ammunitions with Ukraine, after all, what if they need those stockpiles? Better to hard them in fear a future hypothetical war, than to spend it on the current real war that, if won, would stop the future potential aggressor cold.
Hence, threatening NATO countrie
Re: (Score:1)
You're wrong, Russia wants normalization. Putin has ALWAYS wanted normalization. Instead it has always been the West's intention since the USSR dissolved in 1991 to undermine and break up Russia.
Here's the dirty little secret: there are more natural resources frozen under Siberia right now than the rest of the world combined. Whoever controls that when it thaws will control the planet. Once you understand that then everything else that the bankrupt West has been doing on Russia's borders the past 35 year
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You're wrong, Russia wants normalization.
Nope, see Alexandr Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics [wikipedia.org].
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You mean they're gaining popularity due to the influx of migrants who are destabilizing their societies, raping their daughters and destroying their economies?
Ah! A GB News regular, I see!
Are they still following the old trick of taking one single isolated event, and talking about that one single isolated event non-stop for ten years straight to give the gullible the impression that one single isolated event happened twenty thousand times?
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As an independent I saw
You say you're independent, but you refer to far-right propaganda as fact, which suggests you're not as independent as you believe yourself to be.
Furthermore, the aspect of you referring to Biden's center-right policies as being "radical left" and "extremist" suggests you're more accurately positioned somewhere between the hard-right and the far-right. Sure, the center-right, seen from the perspective of the hard-right, is to their left. But being to the left of the hard-right is very different from being o
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They know how close they are to seeing the torches and pitchforks. Won't be long now for Germany.
Re: Wtf (Score:2)
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Warrant? (Score:2)
They did not mention the German equivelent of a warrant.
Cant he police do this at will? (as in, no one checking to see if the officer is doing it to his ex-wife?) Or do they require a Judge's permission (aka search warrant)
Anyone know the answer?
Without a warrant, this seems like an obviously bad idea. Cops should care more about guilt then they should care about protecting the innocent. But judges should be the other way around.
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They did not mention the German equivelent of a warrant.
Cant he police do this at will? (as in, no one checking to see if the officer is doing it to his ex-wife?) Or do they require a Judge's permission (aka search warrant)
Anyone know the answer?
Without a warrant, this seems like an obviously bad idea. Cops should care more about guilt then they should care about protecting the innocent. But judges should be the other way around.
It's not just Germany. Most of Western Europe has been trending this way since the end of the Cold War, and the roots of such thinking were there long before Hitler was even an itch in his daddy's pants. A lot of Americans seem surprised by this. But Europe isn't America, and European governments have always had a more paternalistic view of their role than American political philosophy allows for. Further, most Europeans are fine with that. Americans gasp when they see such things, but this is just the lat
Re: (Score:1)
...Most of Western Europe has been trending this way since the end of the Cold War, and the roots of such thinking were there long before Hitler was even an itch in his daddy's pants. A lot of Americans seem surprised by this. But Europe isn't America, and European governments have always had a more paternalistic view of their role than American political philosophy allows for. Further, most Europeans are fine with that. Americans gasp when they see such things, but this is just the latest line of code in the old European We'll keep you all safe, comfy, and warm under the blanket of *insert European capitol here* script. European thinking sees the welfare of their people in totality. So it's not just social welfare you get from such systems... "free" healthcare, subsidized housing, schools, etc... but you also get the rest of the "protection" philosophy... that you have to protect people from themselves. Speech codes, bans on anything the government deems "extreme", they're all part of the paternalistic view that you're protecting and providing for your people. Father's job is to feed, house, and keep the kids safe. Part of that is disciplining and setting rules that they have to follow, for their own good. With a few exceptions, this is No Bueno is most of North America, but again, Europe isn't America. It has a considerably different mindset.
In the USA they have derivatives of the Hayes Code so people still can't say naughty words on TV. The sight of a nipple caused moral panic just a few years ago. There's plenty of "protection" nonsense in the USA too, it just doesn't come with perks for the people like healthcare or public transport. In fact, the White house is reverting to McCarthyist propaganda about "radical left-wing extremists" who propose such things.
What's old is new (Score:1)
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I wonder who will be blamed
the proverbial external devil: russia and china aren't hard to guess candidates. but there are many other options: climate change, us financial collapse, ai or last but not last: their own people. bad people bad! that's what they need surveillance and control. oh and in case you'd like do dodge drafting ...
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It shows how desperate they are by suggesting Russia would want to conquer Germany. Germans don't even want Germany. Same for the UK and France.
One question (Score:2)
It seems we've seen this before, am i reich? (Score:2)
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This is merely Berlin. That city always had weird politics.
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https://i.imgur.com/mferU8l.pn... [imgur.com]
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Well, guess what, Germany is a federation. Some states even had capital punishment in their constitutions until a few years ago, yet the federal constitution still made it illegal. Will most likely be the case with this too. The state surveillance attempts have been far worse 20 years ago, but ultimately went nowhere for the most part.
Re: It seems we've seen this before, am i reich? (Score:1)
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i mean they took economic advantage of cheap russian oil to run their heavy industry and out compete others on price. kinda been sus for 20 years.
papers please (Score:2)
It was nice while it lasted... (Score:4, Interesting)
If the software cannot be deployed remotely, the law authorizes officers to secretly enter a person's home to gain access.
I'll bet Berliners who were alive when the Wall came down are very pissed off and/or scared about this. They remember what it was like to live in a surveillance state where every word and action was guarded, and I'm sure they see this as the return of that era or something very like it.
All over the world, oligarchs and would-be oligarchs are plotting and propagandizing in favour of an ersatz "liberty for safety" trade. Why in hell can't we have both? I have yet to be convinced that such measures make us materially safer.
Who benefits? First and foremost, the vendors of the tech and the consultants who implement it. Second, the police, whose budgets, powers, and staffing levels grow. Third? Probably nobody.
I have a hard time believing that average citizens will get much benefit at all from this. It's a net loss for them - loss of privacy, loss of freedom, and loss of money in the form of higher taxation. But hey - dictators gotta dictate. And the people pushing this seem to be either aspiring dictators, or dupes and stooges of same.
Germans just cannot help themselves, huh? (Score:2)
Some of these stereotypical aspects just keep repeating in German history. As if the stereotypical German mind just cannot help itself, from that one notorious political party to the Stasi to modern day invasions of privacy and encryption within Germany and on EU level in Brussels.
Ze surveillanze must happen, Ja?
Re: (Score:1)
And than you look at the US doing this crap for far, far longer. Bug-planting by law-enforcement has a long, long tradition in the US. The difference is that in Germany, so far, this was completely illegal for law enforcement. Whether this will stand in Berlin remains to be seen, but I doubt it.
Re: Germans just cannot help themselves, huh? (Score:2)
Show me proof of this alleged rampant USA bug planting prior to WW2 or WW1.
Germany is the original oppressive and unhinged Western regime-country. (Italy was just cute in comparison)
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The only one here talking about "rampart" is you. Shows that you are arguing in bad faith,
Re: Germans just cannot help themselves, huh? (Score:2)
Could not even name a single instance of this alleged long long tradition - prior to WW1 / WW2. Got it.
Then Germany is the OG, my point stands.
We will see whether it survives (Score:3)
There will be for sure a review by the Bundesverfassungsgericht. So far, the surveillance-fascists always lost.
Cookies (Score:2)
They're gonna install malware on your device but heaven forbid your website sets the wrong cookie, then they're fining you 6% of annual revenue.
When did East Germany win?
I've heard this song before... (Score:2)
"We can't be free because we have to be safe."
Großer Bruder (Score:1)
Approved by... (Score:2)