June 3, 2026, 11:56 am | Read time: 4 minutes
In investigations, the most important question is likely about their current whereabouts. Where are they, and how can their movements be tracked? To keep up with criminals and suspects, many tools are used. According to new research, the German police are reportedly using location data from individuals that were not originally collected for this purpose.
Police Use Commercial Location Data
A joint investigation by BR and “netzpolitik.org” has now revealed that at least two state criminal police offices (LKAs) have accessed commercially used location data from the advertising industry in the past. Consumers provide this data through smartphone apps when they activate the location function on their devices.
The LKA Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has confirmed this. However, the extent has been limited so far. They justify their actions based on general powers in the Code of Criminal Procedure and the State Police Act.
The LKA Brandenburg also stated that it has occasionally used data brokers or other providers of commercially available data to combat various criminal phenomena. Although the statement does not specify whether location data was included, it is conceivable.
And the Other LKAs?
While two LKAs responded quite transparently to the inquiry, the others were different, especially regarding the legal basis. The LKAs of Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Saarland, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, Bavaria, and Baden-Württemberg at least stated that the police could use commercial location data and that it was legally possible.
Bremen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt, Hesse, and Schleswig-Holstein explicitly stated that they do not use such data. Excluding Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg, nine LKAs remain that did not want to comment explicitly on the use and referred to confidentiality reasons and police tactical considerations. According to an expert opinion from the Scientific Service of the Bundestag, there are indications that this approach is now more the rule than the exception.
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Use Possibly Illegal
Since such information, especially the location data used, is actually only collected for advertising purposes and not for law enforcement, there could be an illegality here. According to the investigation, legal expert Mark Zöller, a professor of criminal law and digitalization at LMU Munich, comes to this assessment.
There would be no legal basis, and the LKAs could not simply rely on general clauses. “Anyone doing this at the moment is acting without a legal basis.” The expert concedes that in exceptional cases and depending on the severity of the crime, illegally obtained data could also be used. Nevertheless, legal regulations are needed, especially concerning data from the advertising industry.
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Mass Surveillance Possible
From an investigative perspective, it would make sense to quickly use new technical possibilities for crime fighting. But in a constitutional state, the mantra must be: “Regulate first, then proceed.” The data protection commissioners of the 16 federal states see it similarly, as reported by “Tagesschau.”
Wolfie Christl, a tracking researcher from Vienna, sees an even bigger problem emerging. If the German police use ad-based systems for their own purposes, “it would be conceivable to have a kind of uncontrolled mass surveillance based on large amounts of purchased personal behavioral data about millions of people.”
TECHBOOK has sent an inquiry to the federal government to find out how it assesses this approach and whether and how it might take action against it. We received the following response from the Federal Ministry of the Interior:
“We ask for your understanding that the BMI does not comment on this original area of responsibility of the state criminal police offices or the states. Regardless of the question, the protection of personal data of citizens is an important concern for the federal government. The trade in personal data is only permissible within narrow legal limits according to the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Violations are subject to the control and sanctioning powers of the independent data protection supervisory authorities. In principle, the federal government sees the GDPR as an effective tool to prevent unauthorized data processing.”
A spokesperson for the BMI
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Common Practice Worldwide
Internationally, police authorities also use commercially collected data and employ the services of specialized providers for this purpose. For example, the controversial U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is said to use this information to locate individuals for arrest.
Within the EU, the sale of location data, which is otherwise only collected for advertising purposes, is prohibited without explicit consent. Nevertheless, data brokers sell movement profiles of individuals on a large scale.