Since it became public that the police illegally obtained data from the Luca app, there has been heavy criticism of the authorities. Prosecutors admitted that obtaining the data was illegal.
After the members of the Bundestag Maximilian Funke-Kaiser (FDP) and Alexander Salomon (Greens) called for the Luca app to be deleted in order to avoid illegal access by the police, Smudo from the Fantastischen Vier now also speaks out. He was instrumental in developing the contact tracing app.
Smudo: Criticism of the Luca app is incomprehensible
He said to “Bild”: “I think it is irresponsible that a call from one or two politicians I have never known before could lead to people deleting the Luca app in the middle of the pandemic situation.” The Luca app would become effective help break chains of infection.
Smudo cannot understand that the criticism is now directed against the Luca app and not against the illegally acting authorities. The Luca app is not to blame, because “we as the Luca system are outside and cannot read any data in the process. Access to data is only gained if users, the health department and the local share their keys together. The user does this in accordance with the Corona Ordinance when entering the bar, the operator only at the request of a health authority.
Police access to contacts prohibited
Lawyer Dejan Dardić explains: “According to Section 28a (4) IfSG, the data from the Luca app may not be accessed for the purpose of looking for witnesses or criminal prosecution. Accordingly, the actions of the police and the health department were not covered by the Infection Protection Act.”
Even before the Luca app was introduced, the police used contact details for investigation purposes that had to be provided when visiting restaurants, for example, as part of the corona measures. After becoming known, several federal states had to admit the allegations. The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, for example, announced that these were “repressive” and “preventive police” measures. Mostly it was about offenses such as insult, unauthorized removal from the scene of the accident or theft.
According to Dardić, the use of guest lists, which contain guest data such as name, address or telephone number, for the purpose of criminal prosecution, as well as from the Luca app, is inadmissible.