Your data is accessible!

Raising awareness

Every day and with every click, Internet users leave a digital fingerprint. The history of websites visited makes it possible to create an exact profile – without users noticing. In short: your service provider knows more about you than you think. With this campaign, the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung (German Working Group on Data Retention) aims to raise awareness of what types of monitoring and data collection are possible on the Internet, and what measures are being sought by the German Federal Government.

Gaining insights

We’d like to invite you to participate in an experiment: surf for a limited period of time with the fingerprint browser. You will be able to see all traces that you leave behind on the Internet. And you can have these traces evaluated at any time to find out what they reveal about you. The digital fingerprint is more than just a buzzword.

Was ist Vorratsdatenspeicherung?

The German Telecoms Data Retention Act, which was passed by the ruling parties CDU, CSU and SPD over opposition from the FDP, Greens and Die Linke on 9 November 2007, and since limited by the German Federal Constitutional Court, went into force at the beginning of 2008 and obliges all German communications providers to keep phone call records and details of Internet and e-mail usage for six months.

In the case of calls and text messages exchanged via mobile phones, the user’s location is also stored. A ban on anonymising services is also planned.

With the aid of the data collected about the entire population, it is possible to trace movements, reconstruct business activities and identify one’s friends and acquaintances. Information can also be deduced about the content of the communications as well as about the personal interests and life situations of those communicating. The police, public prosecutors and foreign states can access the data if it promises to improve law enforcement efforts.

Previously, telecoms carriers were only allowed to retain the connection data required for billing purposes. The logging of location data, Internet domain extensions and e-mail addresses was not permitted. Customers could request the deletion of billing data with the issuance of the invoice. By using flat rate services, one could prevent the retention of connection data altogether, which can be important for journalists, crisis lines and others. Data retention effectively removes all protection of sensitive contacts and activities.

According to the decision of German Federal Constitutional Court on 18 March 2008, the state can, for the time being, only access phone connection data to investigate serious criminal offences. Telecom companies can store customer data for six months, but are not required to grant access to public authorities in all cases. This is only permitted if there is concrete suspicion of a serious crime such as murder, hostage-taking and child pornography. The German Federal Constitutional Court has asked the German Federal Government to submit a report on the practical impact of the interim order by 1 September 2008.

What's the problem?

  • The problem has only been put off for now, because the following still hold true:
  • Data retention represents an excessive invasion of personal privacy.
  • Data retention interferes with professional activities (in fields such as medicine, law, religion and journalism) as well as political and business activities that rely on confidentiality. It ultimately harms free society itself.
  • Data retention fails to prevent terrorism or crime. It is unnecessary and can easily be circumvented by criminals.
  • Data retention violates the human right to privacy and informational self-determination.
  • Data retention is expensive and puts a financial strain on both businesses and consumers.
  • Data retention discriminates against users of landline phone, mobile phone and Internet services compared with users of other types of communications.

Anonymous surfing

The Open Trace browser uses the PHP Web proxy Glype. According to our knowledge, this is currently the best software of its kind on the market (we look forward to hearing about your experiences in our blog). For real anonymity on the Web, however, we recommend a decentralised solution such as the PrivacyDongle. The software TorPark is pre-installed on the USB stick and allows anonymous communications without any installation.

Take action

There are many ways to protest against data retention and to actively work to stop it.