Cell phone surveillance demands of Austrian domestic intelligence agency under fire

GENEVA

Data protectionists and politicians from Austrian political parties Neos, FPO, SPO, and Greens have rejected calls by domestic intelligence agency DSN's head Omar Haijawi-Pirchner for cell phone surveillance.

Haijawi-Pirchner on Monday called for better options in fighting terrorism in an interview with the daily Der Standard. Specifically, Kirchner had called for access to certain cell phone apps to gain access to the microphone or movement data, among other things.

"Haijawi-Pirchner is pushing for a strong expansion of legal powers in law enforcement," data protection expert Thomas Lohninger told Der Standard on Tuesday.

According to the data protection expert, however, this would represent a serious encroachment on fundamental rights and would make common smartphones less secure by legalizing state hacking.

Lohninger also doubts that the domestic intelligence service only wants access to certain apps.

The demands of Haijawi-Pirchner could only be met by a federal Trojan, which would be secretly installed on the devices of individuals and spy on apps, microphones, or movement data, he added.

Nikolaus Scherak, a board member from the liberal party Neos told Der Standard: "The head of the DSN should actually know what our constitution allows and what not. Without complete access to a device, it's not even technically possible to screen certain apps."

The right-wing conservative FPO also rejected Kirchner's demands. All citizens are put under "general suspicion" with such measures, the party said in a statement to the daily.

The Social Democratic Party of Austria, SPO, said that in the wake of the 2020 Vienna terrorist attack, the investigative commission found that "it was not the amount of data, but its networking and matching that would have been decisive in countering terrorism." So, "new instruments would not be up for debate for the SPO."

In a statement to the daily, the Green Party, responsible for the Justice Ministry in the Austrian federal government, "rejects the mass surveillance of cell phone users without any reason by means of chat control."

The ruling OVP party said that while there is a "need for contemporary powers to fight organized crime and terrorism," these must be "based on a solid legal foundation," which "must first be created."

Experts from the Interior Ministry and the judiciary would therefore deal with this issue, the OVP added.