Operation Mikado
In Operation Mikado , which has been known to the public since January 2007 , in the second half of 2006, as part of an investigation into child pornography, the Saxony-Anhalt police in cooperation with the credit institutions for the first time all of the approximately 22 million credit cards issued in Germany after payments of 79, Searched $ 99 to a stranger who posted photos and videos of abused children. As a result, it was established against 322 suspects that a “majority” of those affected had confessed to the download . The information was neither confirmed nor denied by the State Criminal Police Office .
Reactions
The incident was only slightly criticized by data protectionists. However, the Halle District Court received three requests for judicial review.
One of the applicants, the Düsseldorf lawyer Udo Vetter , accused him of having “placed around a quarter of the German population under general suspicion”. He compared the police's actions with a computer search . "The right of every citizen to informational self-determination , guaranteed by the constitution, has been violated in the worst possible way, as has the principle of proportionality ."
Harald von Bose , State Commissioner for Data Protection Saxony-Anhalt , estimated that the measure taken by the Halle public prosecutor's office was a request for information with selection criteria, as is the case in the area of telecommunications according to § 113 TKG - without a court order - to the respective service provider can be asked. This type of request for information is based on §§ 160 ff. StPO . In the opinion of the state commissioner for data protection, the Halle public prosecutor carried out the investigations in the "Mikado" procedure within the scope of the powers it is entitled to. From a decision of the district court Halle Saale district on 11 March 2007, can be seen "... the data query the prosecution Hall at West German credit card and billing companies as part of the investigation, Mikado 'was legal." "The required initial suspicion within the meaning of § 152 para. 2 StPO was present. "" The court does not fail to recognize that the assumption of an initial suspicion here is at the lowest level of suspicion and that there is only a 'fine line' between initial suspicion and general suspicion or a suspicion produced by a suspicion intervention. " "The investigative measure objected to is covered by §§ 161 , ( 161a ) StPO." "There is also no screening under § 98a StPO, which would proceed as a special legal regulation of the application of § 161 StPO." The measure objected to was also not disproportionate. ”“ The investigative act of the Sta atsanwaltschaft does not inadmissibly impair the applicant - as well as the other affected parties - in their right to informational self-determination. "
The applicant lodged an appeal against the decision of the local court, which the regional court Halle / S. Rejected as unfounded on May 16, 2007. A constitutional complaint was filed with the Federal Constitutional Court against this decision . She supports u. a. on the fact that this is precisely not a "request for information" or a grid search, but a completely new investigative tool called "personal data search". The Federal Constitutional Court did not accept the complaint for decision. The court justified this with a lack of prospects of success, since the informational self-determination was not violated, the measure did not constitute a raster search and the proportionality was maintained.
literature
- Christoph Schnabel: The "Mikado Principle" In: Data protection and data security (DuD) 6/2007, pp. 426-430. Download as a PDF file
- Thomas Petri: Requests for information according to § 161 StPO towards private individuals - a hidden screen search? In: Strafverteidiger (StV) 5/2007, pp. 266–269.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Strike against child pornography - the majority of the suspects confess. tagesschau.de, January 9, 2007, accessed on February 23, 2009 .
- ↑ Was bulk credit card verification legal? (tagesschau.de archive) Tagesschau from January 12, 2007
- ^ LG Halle, decision of May 16, 2007, Az. 13 Qs 125/07, on this Christoph Schnabel: The "Mikado Principle" In: Data protection and data security (DuD) 6/2007, pp. 426-430. Download ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. as a PDF file
- ↑ BVerfG, decision of February 17, 2009 , Az. 2 BvR 1372/07, 2 BvR 1745/07, full text.
