A monitoring software called Gotham developed by the US company Palantir is designed as an all-rounder: a huge amount of data is brought together at the speed of electricity.
It takes only a few seconds to satisfy the curiosity of a police officer: name, age, address, fine, criminal records. In combination with the content of selected cellphones and scanned social media channels, a broader profile of anyone appears in a moment.
With the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the monitoring program developed by the US Technology Company makes the dreams of police and intelligence agencies come true.
Three of the 16 federal states of Germany are already using Gotham: Bavaria, Hece and North Rhine-Westphalia. Baden-Württemberg is planning to implement it soon.
However, according to privacy advocates and civil rights organizations, it comes with a major problem: with the suspicion of a crime, it can ensure innocent people.
German non -profit groups Civil rights society (GFF) It is fundamental for the use of programs like Palantir. Therefore, it has filed a constitutional complaint against large -scale data analysis in Bavaria.
“Anyone who files a complaint, or who is a victim of a crime, or even at the wrong time, attracts the attention of the policy through this software,” GFF said lawyer Franziska Gorlitz.
For Berlin-based outfit, such unlimited analysis of data violated the fundamental right to informative self-determination and secrecy of telecommunications, a guarantee in the German Constitution.
Whoever shows this so -called data on the police radar through this so -called data mining knows anything. According to the current law, the police in Bavaria can use Palatir software even if there is no indication of danger. In doing so, they are ignoring the standards applied to neighboring Hayes following a successful constitutional complaint by GFF in 2023. The Federal Constitutional Court is yet to rule on a similar complaint of the North-Westphalia state.
Caos Computer Club Critic Opportunities Software
The Hacker Association Caos supports constitutional complaint against Computer Club Bavaria. Its spokesperson, Constens Kurz, spoke of a “Palatir Draganet Investigation”, in which the police were connecting separately stored data for very different purposes compared to the original intentions.
Kurz said, “It is enough for this automatic mass analysis that he could not become a everyday tool for the police.
The software company owned by US billionaire Peter Theal provided its software to Bavaria in 2024; In Hece, it is already in use since 2017. Entrepreneurs with German roots and New Zealand citizenship have a reputation to pursue powerist goals and maintain close contact with President Donald Trump and his political circle. American intelligence agencies and the army have long worked with the Gotham program.
In Germany, the peller software goes by various names, such as Hesandata, or Vera in Bavaria – brief for “Overlapping Systems Research and Analysis Platform”. According to the German newspaper Suddatsche Zitung And Public Service Broadcasters NDR and WDR, police used Vera in about 100 cases by May 2025.
One of these was an attack on the Israeli Consulate in September 2024. The Vice President of the Police Association, Alexander Poitz explained that automated data is possible to identify the movements of some criminals and provide accurate conclusions to the authorities about their employed works.
“This is how the Munich police were able to control the eye quickly relative to the situation and bring it to a conclusion,” Poitz explained the public broadcaster MDR. The broadcaster reported that the American company was provided unlimited access to the data files of the Bavarian police to merge the system.
The computer source code is stored on the server in Germany. However, critics say that according to media outlets, there is no guarantee against copies finding its way for the US.
Berlin: ‘Digital policy is power politics’
Foreign technology is opposed to clear and increasing dependence on veterans, Germany as a peller. The new government, including the Center-Rest Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the Center-Left Social Democrats (SPD), wrote “Digital Policy Is Power Politics” in its coalition agreement earlier this year, which prevent their goals:
“We want a digitally sovereign Germany. To do this, we will destroy digital developed major technologies, secure standards, protect and expand digital infrastructure. Raw materials for chips for hardware and software.”
Despite this, German internal minister Alexander Dobridate (CSU) appears to keep his options open, so far refused to buy Palatir software for the federal criminal police office and federal police.
Dobrindt is breaking up with a line of its predecessor Nancy Faper (SPD), who rejected the use of these programs in 2023.
The constitutional complaint of GFF against the use of Palentir has strong public support. At German Online petition forum campactTo appeal to leaders to prevent software use
By July 30, Germany was signed by more than 264,000 people within a week.
This article was original in German.
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