Germany's move towards expanded biometric surveillance capabilities is facing strong opposition. ### Proposed Legislation Details The proposed bills would allow German police to upload a facial image and automatically search the internet for matching images. Currently, officers must manually search social networks and other online platforms to find photos of criminal suspects. The draft regulations are detailed in a series of drafts released by Germany’s federal ministry of justice and consumer protection. The German government defends the move by stating the bills would not create a state-controlled database of indefinitely stored images. They also assert that real-time surveillance images collected by public cameras will not be included. ### Civil Society Opposition A coalition of over a dozen civil society organizations has voiced strong opposition, warning that the legislation would enable digital dragnets and mass surveillance. In a joint statement, the coalition argued that the proposals violate fundamental constitutional and human rights. "We reject these provisions on fundamental constitutional and human rights grounds — specifically in the context of both criminal procedure and preventive policing law," the coalition stated. Some lawmakers also oppose the legislation. Konstantin von Notz, deputy faction leader of the Greens, told the German news outlet Heise that he believes the bills are dangerous and invade the privacy of "potentially everyone, including completely blameless citizens." ### **noyb** Sues Hamburg DPA Over **PimEyes** Inaction Adding to the privacy concerns, the privacy advocacy group **none of your business (noyb)** has filed a lawsuit against the Hamburg data protection authority (DPA). The lawsuit alleges the DPA is failing to enforce European laws against the facial recognition search engine **PimEyes**, arguing that the Hamburg DPA has already ruled that **PimEyes** acted illegally but has nonetheless done nothing because **PimEyes** is based in Dubai. "The unchecked spread of facial recognition tools such as **PimEyes** is disastrous for privacy: stalking and mass surveillance of millions of people can be carried out in a matter of seconds," said Max Schrems, the founder and chairman of **noyb**. "**PimEyes** has amassed billions of pieces of biometric data from innocent people without their knowledge and makes this data available to everyone. This mass surveillance of private individuals is clearly unlawful – and the Hamburg authority also sees it this way."