Germany’s Interior Ministry is preparing legislation that would significantly expand the powers of the country’s domestic intelligence agency, allowing it to covertly enter homes, access computers and smartphones, and actively intervene in digital communications as part of a broader overhaul of Germany’s security laws.
The proposals would represent one of the largest expansions of the BfV’s powers in decades. Germany has historically maintained strict limits on its intelligence services, reflecting the country’s experience with both the Nazi regime’s security apparatus and the East German Stasi, whose extensive domestic surveillance left a lasting imprint on Germany’s approach to civil liberties.
Under the proposals, the BfV would gain powers to secretly enter homes, remotely infiltrate computers and mobile phones using state spyware, copy or delete data, install surveillance devices and actively interfere with ongoing communications and cyber operations.
Intelligence officers would no longer be limited to gathering information but could also take operational measures to disrupt perceived threats.
The reform also foresees broader surveillance powers based on different threat levels, expanded use of undercover informants, and the ability to compel telecommunications providers, financial institutions and digital service providers to cooperate with secret intelligence requests.
Companies refusing to comply could face penalties.
Oversight of surveillance activities would be consolidated under a new Independent Control Council.
In case of particular urgency, however, the office management can make it immediately enforceable. The control would then only take effect retrospectively.
The Interior Ministry argues the changes are necessary in response to an increasingly complex security environment marked by cyberattacks, sabotage, espionage and foreign influence operations.
Private companies, such as telecommunications providers and digital service providers could be obliged to help the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Adding to all this, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is to be allowed, in exceptional cases, to use young people from the age of 16 as confidants.
Minors would thus be possible as spies for the domestic intelligence service while Germany is also debating measures to curb their use of social media because they are considered too immature to handle it.
Speaking in the Bundestag earlier this year, Dobrindt said: “Germany is the target of sabotage, espionage, disinformation and, yes, terrorism. It is naturally the task of politics to prepare itself, become more resilient and, yes, also strike back.”
The proposals reflect what senior government figures have described as a necessary shift away from Germany’s traditionally restrained intelligence mod
The plans have already drawn criticism from civil liberties advocates and opposition politicians, who warn they would grant Germany’s intelligence agencies unprecedented surveillance and operational powers while weakening existing safeguards.
Critics also point to Germany’s historical experience with the Gestapo and the East German Stasi, arguing that strong judicial oversight has long been considered a cornerstone of the country’s post-war constitutional order.
Currently the draft bill is still being discussed withing the government. The Federal Cabinet still has to decide on the matter and then in will pass the Bundestag.
