New law allows German investigators access to PIN and passwords

[struggle4progress]

... According to the new law, security officials including the federal police, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, customs officials and the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) would be allowed to access a person's data provided that person is believed to have committed a misdemeanor or criminal offense. Prior to the law going into effect, such data could only be accessed in cases of severe criminal offenses ...

Rainer Wendt, chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG), disagrees, telling DW: "This instrument will not be used to catch parking violators or people who crossed a street while the light was red. This instrument will only be used in cases involving offenses with severe consequences."

Opposing that view are voices including that of Germany's Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Peter Schaar and the German Federation of Journalists as well as political parties like the Greens, the Left and the Pirate Party. The Pirate Party's political chairperson, Katharina Nocun, has called for a higher bar when it comes to authorities being allowed to identify an internet user ...

Katharina Nocun sees cause for concern in the fact that telecommunications providers can no longer take matters into their own hands when it comes to informing their clients about such data access. There's a regulation preventing that. That's why the law is dangerous, says Nocun: "A society in which I don't at all know whether I'm being surveilled or not, whether I am perhaps being disadvantaged as a result, that I've perhaps said something negative about the government in an internet forum - that changes a democracy" ...

http://www.dw.de/new-law-allows-german-investigators-access-to-pin-and-passwords/a-16916923

[struggle4progress]

1. Germany also profits from US, British spying

... German spies have also been sniffing around online - and on a large scale, not just in cases of concrete suspicion. The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is legally allowed to rifle through up to 20 percent of the communication between Germany and other countries, and monitor certain Internet search terms ...

In 2011, the BND filtered out almost 330,000 separate telecommunications messages for closer inspection in the area of terrorism defense alone. For this, there's a list of 1,500 search terms, some combination of which must be mentioned in order to allow the filtering.

The information source for this is a report by a parliamentary control committee from March 2013. The committee, comprised of 11 parliamentarians, oversees all German intelligence. Apart from the BND, this includes the Constitutional Protection Office and the Military Counter-Intelligence Service ...

"The NSA has 60,000 workers and also employs many external firms, while experts estimate that altogether 15,000 people work for the GCHQ," Schmidt-Eenboom said. He pointed out that, in contrast, the external electronic message department of the BND includes about 1,500 workers ...

http://www.dw.de/germany-also-profits-from-us-british-spying/a-16916837

[LiberalFighter]

2. How will they prevent someone from using it illegally?

If the police as a whole would have access than others would have access too.