At least one German state-level criminal police department (LKA) purchased location data from digital advertising for surveillance, despite lacking a lawful basis, prompting an investigation by the state's data protection authority.
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At least one German state-level criminal police department (LKA) purchased location data from digital advertising for surveillance, despite lacking a lawful basis, prompting an investigation by the state's data protection authority.
Highly problematic on many levels:
https://netzpolitik.org/2026/daten-schwarzmarkt-deutsche-polizei-nutzt-offenbar-rechtswidrig-databroker/ -
At least one German state-level criminal police department (LKA) purchased location data from digital advertising for surveillance, despite lacking a lawful basis, prompting an investigation by the state's data protection authority.
Highly problematic on many levels:
https://netzpolitik.org/2026/daten-schwarzmarkt-deutsche-polizei-nutzt-offenbar-rechtswidrig-databroker/@netzpolitik_feed and Bayerischer Rundfunk sent freedom of information requests and media inquiries to all 16 German state LKAs:
- LKA Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: confirmed the (past) use of advertising data
- LKA Brandenburg: confirmed the use of 'commercial data'
- LKAs in 5 states: we don't use advertising data
- LKAs in 9 states: we won't tell you, neither confirm nor deny -
@netzpolitik_feed and Bayerischer Rundfunk sent freedom of information requests and media inquiries to all 16 German state LKAs:
- LKA Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: confirmed the (past) use of advertising data
- LKA Brandenburg: confirmed the use of 'commercial data'
- LKAs in 5 states: we don't use advertising data
- LKAs in 9 states: we won't tell you, neither confirm nor denySo, it is likely that more than one German state police dept bought ad-based surveillance tech, which typically involves data on millions of people secretly gathered from their phones.
Not a single German state data protection authority (out of 16) sees a lawful basis for the police utilizing this data, according to their statements.
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So, it is likely that more than one German state police dept bought ad-based surveillance tech, which typically involves data on millions of people secretly gathered from their phones.
Not a single German state data protection authority (out of 16) sees a lawful basis for the police utilizing this data, according to their statements.
Whoever provided the data to LKA Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the data provider and its suppliers also lack a lawful basis to process and share personal data from mobile apps and digital advertising with German police under the GDPR. I further discussed this here:
https://mastodon.social/@wchr/116403306330427864Put differently, German police unlawfully used data that was unlawfully processed and shared by many parties from apps to data brokers to surveillance tech firms.
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Whoever provided the data to LKA Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the data provider and its suppliers also lack a lawful basis to process and share personal data from mobile apps and digital advertising with German police under the GDPR. I further discussed this here:
https://mastodon.social/@wchr/116403306330427864Put differently, German police unlawfully used data that was unlawfully processed and shared by many parties from apps to data brokers to surveillance tech firms.
The above investigation was supported by me and the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab.
We recently published a massive report on the ad-based mass surveillance system Webloc and its uses in the US, El Salvador and Hungary:
https://mastodon.social/@wchr/116375617333864571Mecklenburg-Vorpommern LKA did not disclose who they bought from.
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
