Working group on data retention (Germany)

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Logo of the working group for data retention

The working group for data storage ( AK VDS or AK stock for short ) was created in December 2005 as a nationwide association of civil rights activists, data protectionists, organizations and internet users in order to coordinate a common approach to data retention .

The working group represents the largest civil society initiative against the EC data retention directive (2006/24 / EC) . Beyond the alliance's original focus of work on preventing or abolishing data retention, its employees and supporters emit numerous civil rights impulses, which are primarily directed against increasing state surveillance.

Principles

The principles of the working group are laid down in a joint declaration by the individual support associations. The storage of (telecommunications) data regardless of suspicion is rejected. The aim of the data retention working group is in particular to stop the retention of connection data.

The approach is to form a broad front against data retention across the population. Social resistance is to be supported by means of technical, legal and political measures. Another aim is to create broad social awareness of the dangers of data storage.

The actions and demonstrations are also directed against “the increasing electronic recording and surveillance of the entire population”. The alliance calls for the abandonment of certain surveillance measures, a halt to new surveillance laws and an independent review of all surveillance laws that have been passed since 1968 for their effectiveness and harmful side effects.

construction

There are no conventional structures within the working group, it is not a registered association and it has no formal membership. Rather, those who register on one of the working group's mailing lists and actively participate in political work and internal discussions are involved. About 1,500 people subscribed to this list in September 2009.

Decisions of the working group are usually made by consensus on the mailing list. Local groups had also formed in around 60 cities to carry out regional campaigns. National and national campaigns are organized online. The working group is named as a prominent example of a network-based "activism 2.0".

The working group is financed through donations and indirectly through the participating organizations, including digitalcourage (formerly FoeBuD), which among other things operates the AK's online shop. By Spreadshirt the proceeds of the sale of 1,500 -Stasi 2.0 donated T-shirts worth more than 11,000 euros.

founding

The working group for data storage was created on the occasion of a meeting initiated by the New Media Network at the Chaos Communication Congress in December 2005. Participants in the meeting came from various organizations and structures. Representatives of official data protection officers were present, from Attac , the German Association for Data Protection , from digitalcourage (at that time still FoeBuD), from Stop1984 and various providers. It was decided to work together more closely and more clearly, primarily through an informal association. Other associations and initiatives, such as the FIfF e. V. , the Humanist Union or the Pirate Party , joined later.

Actions

Various information events, art campaigns and demonstrations have taken place on behalf of the working group on data retention.

Demonstrations

Demonstration in Berlin on September 22, 2007
Demonstration in Leipzig on November 6, 2007
  • In June 2006 a total of around 3,000 participants attended demonstrations in Berlin , Bielefeld and Frankfurt am Main .
  • On September 22, 2007, a large demonstration with around 15,000 participants took place for the first time under the motto “ Freedom instead of fear ”. Thilo Weichert , Schleswig-Holstein's data protection officer, said: “This is the largest demonstration for civil rights and data protection since the 1987 census .” The demonstration was not only supported by the signatories of the “Joint Declaration”, but by many allies, such as the opposition parties in the Bundestag, the Jusos and the ver.di union . The demonstration went beyond data retention against “surveillance mania” in general, including against so-called online searches . However, media interest remained low.
  • On November 6, 2007, smaller demonstrations and vigils took place in officially 49 German cities at the same time, to which the AK-reserve and the Chaos Computer Club had called on the occasion of the imminent adoption of data retention in the Bundestag. Over 15,000 people protested against data retention with rallies and art campaigns, for example in Berlin and Leipzig with 1,500 participants each, in Munich with more than 2,000.
  • On December 31, 2007, a funeral march, accompanied by more than 500 people, moved through downtown Hamburg to the Rathausmarkt, where the private sphere was symbolically buried. The “federal coffin”, which was used there for the first time, then made a tour through Germany. The funeral march was staged by the AK supply local groups Buchholz Nordheide and Hamburg . At the same time, the constitutional complaint with more than 34,000 signatures was submitted in Karlsruhe on December 31, 2007.
  • On October 11, 2008, the AK stock organized another large demonstration with 50,000 (police information) to 100,000 (information from the AK stock) participants in Berlin under the motto “Freedom instead of fear”. On the same day, at the initiative of the working group, demonstrations or other actions against surveillance and for data protection were carried out simultaneously in various other capitals in Europe and overseas. The event achieved a wide media coverage.
  • On September 12, 2009, a large demonstration with 25,000 participants (information from the AK stock) took place in Berlin under the motto "Freedom instead of fear".
  • On September 11, 2010 another freedom instead of fear demonstration took place with 7,500 - 15,000 participants.
  • On September 10, 2011, a large demonstration took place in Berlin, in which around 5,000 people took part.
  • In 2013, a Freedom Instead of Fear demo took place on September 7, 2013 in Berlin.

Art events and information events

Action in front of the Reichstag building on April 18, 2007.

Various local groups of the data retention working group carry out organized campaigns with regional effects in order to draw attention to the dangers of data retention. These are mostly art events and information events. While the Federal Cabinet passed the draft law on data retention by Federal Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries on April 18, 2007 , the Berlin local group organized an art campaign in front of the Reichstag building , using large-format signs to disclose symbolically sensitive information from individual citizens. Information stands were held in various major German cities, for example in Berlin , Munich , Siegen , Dresden , Kassel , Leipzig , Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden .

Constitutional complaint

Since September 2006, the working group has been calling for a class action before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe against the forthcoming law on data retention. By the end of 2007, over 80,000 people had registered online and more than 34,000 had issued a written power of attorney for the working group's lawyer, making this action the largest of its kind in Germany to date and with more complainants than in the census boycott in 1983.

On December 31, 2007, the day before the law on data retention came into effect, the constitutional complaint and an application for an interim order were submitted to the Federal Constitutional Court. The Berlin lawyer Meinhard Starostik was the authorized representative in the complaints procedure. Since not all of the 30,000 powers of attorney of the complainants who joined the constitutional complaint could be processed, the complaint was initially submitted on behalf of eight first complainants. On February 29, 2008, all powers of attorney were finally submitted (at this point in time it had grown to 34,451).

In addition to its significance for the future of freedom on the Internet, the constitutional complaint raised important questions about the extent to which fundamental rights are guaranteed in relation to legislation at European level. The Federal Constitutional Court granted the constitutional complaint on March 2, 2010. The law on data retention has been declared unconstitutional. Data that have already been saved must be deleted.

Online demo

The “virtual dog-ear ” for websites that show the Stasi 2.0 screwdriver or a camera as an eye-catcher is possibly the most successful campaign of its kind in Germany to date. Blogs and smaller websites often take part in this campaign, but larger sites such as Metager2 or netzpolitik.org are also represented. About 800 are currently participating in this form of networking.

Based on the initiative of the Donaukurier to appear with a blackened title page on the occasion of the impending consent to data retention , the AK Storage initiated another web demonstration in November 2007.

Another accepted form of participation is "Watching S." This is a JavaScript animation that shows Wolfgang Schäuble's face at random positions on a website.

Collective petition

Kai-Uwe Steffens from the data retention working group addressed a petition to the German Bundestag on March 15, 2011, according to which suspicious data retention would be declared inadmissible and a Europe-wide ban on data retention should be introduced. The petition was signed by 64,704 people online. On October 15, 2012, the Petitions Committee of the Bundestag heard Steffens orally. He has not yet made a decision on the petition.

Freedom speaker

The so-called freedom speakers are a network of citizens initiated by the working group for data retention, who, for example, give voluntary lectures at schools, universities and associations on the value of privacy and the real benefits of surveillance and discuss these topics with the participants.

We don't save

The "We do not save" campaign is aimed at website operators. Even at the time of the validity of the data retention law, they were not obliged to log the IP addresses of their visitors - on the contrary, they are not allowed to do so under current data protection legislation, although the default settings of many web servers and other publication platforms provide for this. The AK activist Patrick Breyer had the ban on IP logging clarified in front of the court for the website of the Federal Ministry of Justice . Website operators participating in the campaign make it clear with a seal of approval that they have switched off this logging. So far, 75 websites are known that expressly participate.

other topics

In addition to the protest specifically against data retention, the working group deals with other questions and problems relating to data protection. In an open letter to the search engine operator Google , he criticized, for example, the storage of IP addresses, through which every search entry can still be traced in a person-related manner after months.

As early as January 2008, the working group for data retention started a campaign against the planned introduction of so-called air passenger data based on EU law and announced a constitutional complaint in the event that it was implemented in national law.

Also in January 2008, the working group joined the “Stop the E-Card” alliance, which was founded against the introduction of the electronic health card on the initiative of various medical associations, civil rights groups and patient associations. At a joint first press conference, the working group warned of the potential for abuse, which could mean storing the most sensitive illness data in networked databases.

The working group for data retention deals with the student ID with a separate campaign and supports the protest against the blocking of websites .

In May 2010 the census-critical working group Census (short: AK Zensus ) was founded, which largely uses the infrastructure of the working group for data retention and is based on this in its self-given structure.

criticism

In its practical approach, the Working Group on Data Storage was criticized, especially in 2007 and 2008, because it often avoids confrontations with the bourgeois spectrum and clearly delimits itself from radical and militant positions. In doing so, he concentrates on reaching an agreement with precisely those political forces who are politically promoting data retention. The working group's website has had a disclaimer since spring 2009: "We expressly distance ourselves from inhuman and anti-democratic positions".

Joint statement

The working group has drafted a joint declaration on the draft law on data retention, which is supported by numerous associations, clubs and organizations. Furthermore, there are content and personnel overlaps with the working group against Internet blocking and censorship .

Signatory

First signatory of the joint declaration on the draft law on data retention on January 22, 2007:

  1. Working group on data retention
  2. Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers
  3. Chaos Computer Club
  4. German Union of Journalists in ver.di
  5. German League for Human Rights
  6. German Association for Data Protection
  7. German Association of Journalists
  8. German Press Council
  9. Eco forum
  10. Evangelical conference for telephone counseling and open doors
  11. Association for a Free Information Infrastructure
  12. Forum computer scientists for peace and social responsibility
  13. Society for data protection and data security
  14. Gustav Heinemann Initiative
  15. Humanist Union
  16. International League for Human Rights
  17. Committee for Fundamental Rights and Democracy
  18. New media network
  19. Network research
  20. New judges' association
  21. Naiin
  22. Organizing office of defense lawyers associations
  23. Republican Lawyers Association
  24. Stop1984
  25. Association of German Magazine Publishers
  26. Federal association of consumers
  27. Association of Democratic Lawyers
  28. Professional Association of German Psychologists
  29. Association of Democratic Scientists
  30. Federal Coordination of Internationalism
  31. Federal Association of Communicators
  32. Federal Association of the Digital Economy
  33. Federal Association of Women's Advice Centers and Women's Emergency Telephones
  34. Federal Association of Young Authors
  35. Professional association of independent craftspeople
  36. German Lawyers Association
  37. German Association of Trade Journalists
  38. Freelens
  39. Initiative of Bavarian defense lawyers
  40. Reporters without borders
  41. Association of Internet Cafes Germany
  42. Association for the promotion of search engine technology and free access to knowledge
  43. digitalcourage , formerly FoeBuD (association for the promotion of public moving and still data traffic)
  44. Association for political youth participation

swell

  1. Citizens' protest against data storage focus.de
  2. Joint statement on the draft law on data retention
  3. The Path to the Spanner State - Article by Spiegel Online , June 26, 2007
  4. a b c Call for the demo "Freedom instead of fear"
  5. Activism 2.0. How the Internet was used in the activities against data retention (ppt) (PDF; 1.9 MB) Ralf Bendrath
  6. Creative surveillance opponents on the net (tagesschau.de archive) tagesschau.de
  7. Tagesschau: Thousands demonstrate against surveillance ( Memento from October 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  8. Thousands demonstrate nationwide against data retention , November 7, 2007
  9. Freedom Not Fear 2008
  10. Freedom instead of fear 2009 - a complete success , accessed on September 14, 2010 at www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de
  11. Thousands demonstrate for civil rights online
  12. Elena is a sneak article from September 13, 2010 in the young world , accessed on September 14, 2010
  13. See Netzpolitik.org of September 10, 2011: Review of the “Freedom instead of Fear” demo , viewed on September 12, 2011.
  14. Blog of the organizers ( memento from March 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) of the freedom instead of fear demo
  15. ^ Film contribution ( memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) of the Märkische Allgemeine
  16. Citizens against saving their data RegioWeb from October 30, 2007
  17. Video documentation and press conference for the submission of the constitutional complaint ( memento of the original from April 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / video.google.de
  18. Interview with padeluun and Meinhard Starostik on TVB
  19. ^ Constitutional complaint filed by Stern on December 31, 2007
  20. "34,443 complaints against data retention" at heise online
  21. ^ Judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of March 2, 2010 http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/entscheidungen/rs20100302_1bvr025608.html
  22. Online demo - Wiki article from the working group on data storage
  23. Online Demo / Participating sites - List of sites which at the online demo of AK STOCK participate
  24. Example http://netzpolitik.org/ - the website uses the Pagepeel from the beginning of the campaign
  25. TK monitoring: Donaukurier protests with a blackened front page - heise online
  26. Data Retention: The Internet Mourns Telecommunications Secrecy , November 8, 2007
  27. Explanations on Watching S. in AK VORRAT Wiki
  28. Site, the author's, equipped with Watching S. (JavaScript required)
  29. https://epetionen.bundestag.de/petUNGEN/_2011/_03/_15/Petition_17143.nc.html , unabridged version with justification: http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/content/view/711/55/lang, de /
  30. Video hearing in the Petitions Committee on data retention on October 15, 2012
  31. https://epetionen.bundestag.de/petUNGEN/_2011/_03/_15/Petition_17143.nc.html
  32. ^ Freedom speaker - project website of the working group on data storage
  33. Interview with Ralf Bendrath from the working group on data storage at Jetzt.süddeutsche.de
  34. Six months in prison for Brigitte Zypries? at Daten-Speicherung.de
  35. We do not save: The Seal ( Memento of April 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  36. Full storage taz.de
  37. The glass passenger spiegel.de
  38. Extensive collection of materials on Passenger Name Records at the working group
  39. Action: Stop the e-Card!
  40. ^ Alliance against electronic health cards formed ( Memento from April 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Medical Tribune
  41. schueler-id.de ( Memento from April 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Campaign for the student ID
  42. http://www.spreeblick.com/2010/05/31/aktivisten-planen-verfassungsbeschwerde-gegen-volksvergleich-2011/
  43. Open letter to the AK stock
  44. Jungle World - We're getting the big brother! ( Memento from January 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  45. Heise Forum - Who's Afraid of the Black Block?
  46. Joint statement on the draft law on data retention

Web links

Commons : Working group on data retention  - collection of images, videos and audio files