Dodging the Questions of the Digital Age

Verfassungsblog AI Act · 2026-08-31 · EU · verified record

Themes: Artificial intelligence · Cross-sector · Online platforms

31 August 2026 Algorithmic data analyses are set to be introduced at the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Police. With draft laws on new digital investigative powers, the federal government wants in future to enable the federal police authorities to do what several federal states are already implementing with software from the company Palantir: so-called automated data analysis. But the draft laws show negligence in dealing with the risks of algorithmic mass data processing. They dodge the challenges of our time by leaving central questions of the digital age unanswered. This has serious consequences for the protection of our fundamental rights. ## Automated Data Analysis Automated data analysis can describe procedures that differ considerably in their effects on fundamental rights. At the end of the spectrum most compatible with fundamental rights, there might be a technical search that supports suspicion-led human investigation and, for that purpose, evaluates a limited quantity of sensibly selected data within a comprehensible system. At the other end of the spectrum we find what the current draft laws make possible: "data mining" in a gigantic quantity of data about the population, including entirely uninvolved people, using complex AI systems that may no longer be comprehensible, including systems from private companies outside the EU, such as Palantir.…