Bavarian Government Gets Up Close and Personal

Posted by Laureli Mallek Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:02:00 GMT

The German state of Bavaria has approved laws that allow the police to plant spyware on the computers of suspected terrorists. While German federal laws restrict the government to infecting computers with email, Bavarian laws allow police to enter a suspect’s home to physically infect the machine. According to The Register, Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann “gave short shrift to [privacy] objections, stating that Bavaria is leading the field in ‘internal security’ in becoming the first German state to approve the plan.”

This step taken by the Bavarian government counters a ruling earlier this year by Judge Hans-Juergen Papier in North Rhine-Westphalia. He opined that under regular circumstances spying on individuals was unconstitutional, and that permission of a judge would be required prior to implementing this type of surveillance during extreme situations.

In 2007, the internet was talking, though not over VOIP, about the Bavarian government looking to monitor and record Skype phone calls. Documents leaked through Wikileaks showed the thrifty Bavarian government haggling to get a better price on the products needed to invade their citizen’s computers.