Calls for surveillance

How the state can look into its citizens’ cell phones

Security needs versus privacy of correspondence: monitoring encrypted smartphone communication with spyware is legally tricky.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Nadzeya)

The wave of Islamist terrorist attacks in German-speaking countries reached Villach on Saturday: a Syrian stabbed a 14-year-old to death and injured five other people. According to the Ministry of the Interior and the police, the Islamist had radicalized himself online - with TikTok hate preachers. Investigators are therefore once again calling for better surveillance options in the digital space - tools that allow them to look into the smartphone chats of suspects. But how do such tools work and who makes them?

Major powers with well-funded secret services and state hackers, possibly even with access to the servers of certain social media services and messenger apps, have it easier than small states without billions in secret services and server access - it is not for nothing that tips from friendly intelligence services have often helped to thwart terrorist attacks. However, if you don't want to rely on this support from abroad, there are other ways of looking into the cell phones of suspects - private spyware, also known as "state Trojans". For some it is a business - for others it is a danger.