Messenger Surveillance: Government Likely Near Agreement

Specifically, the NEOS recently pushed for further improvements in the areas of legal protection, abuse prevention, and software control.

"A few hours remain for intensive negotiations"

The NEOS consider an agreement possible, but not set in stone. "A few hours remain for intensive negotiations. The outstanding points are essential prerequisites for a constitutionally compliant solution. We are working hard to achieve this," said NEOS negotiation circles to APA. Intensive negotiations are expected to continue on Tuesday.

Specifically, the NEOS are concerned with three points: First, judicial control over the approval for use must be expanded - a panel of judges is being discussed here. Second, the selected software must be "intensively tested" and its capabilities limited to reading messenger data without damaging other systems. As a third point, the NEOS demand "strictest consequences" for any abusive use of surveillance.

After the eight-week review period demanded by the party, intensive negotiations have taken place over the past 14 days, and concerns from the review have been incorporated, APA was told. In total, there are expected to be more than two dozen changes - including the limitation to 30 applications per year until the involvement of parliament and the significant strengthening of the legal protection officer in the Ministry of the Interior.

"Alongside the SPÖ, the NEOS have now also caved"

Criticism came from the Greens: "In addition to the SPÖ, the NEOS have now also caved in," said digitalization spokesperson Süleyman Zorba in a statement. Despite "cosmetic corrections," the fundamental problem remains, he said. "The use of state spyware - so-called federal trojans - is and remains a dangerous breach of the dam. The potential for abuse is enormous, the technical implementation is uncertain, and the constitutional concerns have by no means been resolved," said Zorba.

View on Government Program

At the beginning of June, the NEOS stated regarding the draft at the time, "if the government program applies, there will be no such decision." Because in the government program of ÖVP, SPÖ, and NEOS, it is stipulated that the solution must be "constitutional." NEOS party leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger had already expressed confidence at the beginning of June, despite the concerns, that constitutionality could still be achieved.

In the review of the original draft, the renewed attempt at surveillance met with sharp criticism. Amnesty International and the data protection advocates from epicenter.works, for example, did not speak of messenger surveillance, but of the "federal trojan" or "spyware." A constitutional and human rights-compliant use was ruled out, emphasized Amnesty. epicenter.works reminded that four attempts for such a regulation had already failed.

The judges' association also stated in its opinion that although some concerns expressed in advance had been addressed, the regime provided for in the draft fell short of the clear requirements of the Constitutional Court. Technically, it could not currently be ensured that only parts of a mobile phone's communication could be read, and concerns were also expressed about the independence of the legal protection officer and the additional burden on the already understaffed judiciary.

René Mayrhofer from the University of Linz saw at the beginning of June that the surveillance desired by the government would only be possible if security gaps were exploited, which would be quasi-state-sponsored. This would invest in IT insecurity of all devices instead of continuously improving them.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.