Held online on the 26th and 27th January 2022, the conference ‘Intelligence, surveillance, and oversight: tracing connections and contestations’ aimed to situate the research done in GUARDINT within a broader conversation with intelligence studies, security studies, and International Relations. Participants… Read More »Our GUARDINT Conference report is out!
In May 2020, the German Constitutional Court obliged the Bundestag to reform the current legal framework for foreign intelligence collection. It held that future legislation must extend key fundamental rights protections under the Basic Law to non-nationals. It also called an end to Germany’s evasion of independent judicial oversight.
The Bundestag responded to the clear call for constitutionality in March 2021. Yet, instead of seizing the moment to align the German legal framework on foreign intelligence collection with international standards and European jurisprudence on proportionate government access to personal data, the reform of the BND Act added deficits to the democratic governance of foreign intelligence.
The new research report authored by Kilian Vieth-Ditlmann and Thorsten Wetzling analyses the new legislation and calls upon the next government to prepare a more comprehensive and rights-based intelligence reform.Read More »Caught in the Act? An analysis of Germany’s new SIGINT reform
As part of the new book on “Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance” published in the Routledge Studies in Surveillance series, Thorsten Wetzling and Kilian Vieth-Ditlmann authored a chapter on “Legal safeguards and oversight innovations for bulk surveillance.”… Read More »Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance
The modernised Convention 108+ is the only legally binding agreement on data processing and data protection that extends to the realm of national security and defence. Upon invitation of the Council of Europe, Dr. Thorsten Wetzling and Charlotte Dietrich wrote a… Read More »Report on the need for a guidance note on Article 11 of the Convention 108+
How can civic agency contest digital surveillance? This question was raised during the Session “Civic Agency and Digital Surveillance” at this year’s Data Justice Conference 2021. In their presentation “How to measure and compare civic participation in digital surveillance oversight”… Read More »Data Justice Conference 2021
There are many ways for civil society and media to scrutinise surveillance by intelligence agencies. They can, for example, investigate intelligence policy, draw attention to surveillance practices or initiate litigation against surveillance laws. The Intelligence Oversight Index (IOI) takes this… Read More »Intelligence Oversight Index: Surveys for journalists and activists start
Preventive and systematic surveillance of electronic communications of individuals and companies has grown continuously during the last years through new legal measures and obligations. This can be seen, for example, in the planned regulations of different German laws, as the… Read More »Between protection and surveillance: Current developments in German surveillance politics
On the 24 March 2021 Dr. Thorsten Wetzling and Charlotte Dietrich gave a presentation to the Council of Europe regarding the scope and content of Article 11 of Convention 108+. The Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to… Read More »Council of Europe Meeting on the Convention 108
All major democracies allow their intelligence services to intercept communications data in enormous quantities – most parliaments have even expanded those powers in recent years. As the stakes for fundamental rights and democracy are high, it is important to ensure… Read More »Democratic Intelligence: A new online repository of safeguards and innovations
On 12 March Dr. Thorsten Wetzling held a guest lecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on “Government Access to Private Data: Who gets what when and how?”. The event was sponsored by the Jean Monnet Projects, Center for European Studies,… Read More »Online lecture on government access to private data
