Author: Lotta Rahlf
Publication Date: 24 August 2022
Abstract: While the increasing possibilities for end-to-end encrypted communication constitute a technical advance for general data protection, new challenges arise for law enforcement and intelligence agencies in monitoring terrorist communications. To work around the problem of terrorists ‘going dark’ and evading authorities’ surveillance, German authorities have come to employ controversial methods of communications interception through equipment interference using state spyware. In this paper, I reflect on the proportionality of such measures in light of their implications for fundamental rights by discussing theoretical and practical problems. I thereby constructively explore a current Gordian knot in counterterrorism in the digital age.