The German police and intelligence services are eager to use it. Critics say that the CIA -funded surveillance software has many security gaps. The monitoring software called Gotham, which was developed by the US company Palantir, is characterized as a comprehensive tool: giant quantities of data is concentrated at lightning speed.

It takes only a few seconds to satisfy the curiosity of a police officer: name, age, address, fines, criminal record. Combined with selected mobile phones and the content of scanned social networking channels, a comprehensive profile of any person appears at a time.

With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), the monitoring program developed by the American technology company seems to make the dreams of the police and information services a reality.

Three of Germany’s 16 federal states are already using Gotham: Bavaria, Hesse and Northern Rhine-Westphalia. Baden-Wiremberg plans to implement it soon.

However, according to privacy defenders and civil rights organizations, it is accompanied by a major problem: along with those who are suspected of crime, it can also trap innocent people.

Risk for the right to self -determination

The German non -profit society for Civil Rights (GFF) is radically opposed to the use of programs such as Palantir. For this reason, he submitted a constitutional appeal against large -scale data analysis in Bavaria.

“Anyone who is complaining or a victim of a crime or even happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time can attract the attention of the police through this software,” said GFF’s lawyer Franciska Gerlic.

According to the Berlin -based organization, such an unlimited data analysis violates the fundamental right to self -determination and the confidentiality of telecommunications, which is guaranteed in the German Constitution.

Anyone who appears on the police radar through this so -called data mining knows nothing about it. According to applicable law, police in Bavaria can use Palantir software even when there is no indication of risk.

In this way, they ignore the standards that apply to neighboring Hesse after a successful constitutional appeal by GFF in 2023. The Federal Constitutional Court has not yet ruled for a similar appeal against the North Rhine-Westphalia state.

Chaos Computer Club criticizes software

The Chacker Hacker Association supports the constitutional appeal against Bavaria. His spokesman, Constance Kourtz, spoke of a “investigation into the Palantir Dragnet”, in which police were linked separately stored data for very different purposes than those initially predicted.

“This is enough reason to avoid this automated mass analysis a daily tool for the police. But the data collected also results in the deliberately opaque software of the US company Palantir, from which the police will depend for years, “Kurtz said.

Software, owned by US billionaire Peter Till, provided its software in Bavaria in 2024. In Hesse, it is already used in 2017. A businessman with German roots and New Zealand nationality has a rumor that he is seeking authoritarian goals and maintains close contact. US intelligence services and the army have long been working with the Gotham program.

In Germany, Palantir software has various names, such as Hessendata or Vera in Bavaria – acronym for the “overlapping systems research and analysis platform”.

According to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and Public Broadcasting NDR and WDR, police had already used VERA in about 100 cases until May 2025.

One of them was the attack on the Israeli consulate in Munich in September 2024. The Deputy President of the Police Association, Alexander Poise, explained that the automated data analysis made it possible to recognize the movements of some perpetrators and the provision of precise conclusions.

“Thus, the Munich police managed to take control of the situation relatively quickly and complete it,” Poice told the Public Broadcasting Body MDR. The broadcasting body said the US company had received unlimited access to the Bavarian police records to merge the systems.

The computer source code is stored on servers in Germany. However, critics point out that there is no guarantee that copies will find their way to the US, according to the media.

‘Digital policy is power policy’

The obvious and increasing dependence on foreign technological giants such as Palantir contradicts Germany’s declared ambitions. The new government, consisting of the center -right Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the center -left Social Democrats (SPD), wrote “Digital Policy is a policy of power” in the coalition agreement earlier this year, declaring its goals:

“We want a digitally dominant Germany. To do this, we will dissolve digital dependencies by developing basic technologies, ensuring standards, protecting and expanding digital infrastructure. We will achieve durable value chains for basic industries that are integrated at European level, from raw materials to chips and material and software. “

Nevertheless, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrid (CSU) refuses to exclude the Palantir software for the Federal Police Federation and the Federal Police.

Dobrid breaks the line of Nancy Fezer (SPD), which had rejected the use of these programs in 2023.

GFF’s constitutional appeal against Palantir’s use seems to have strong public support. On the German online platform for campact requests, a call for politicians to stop using the software in Germany was signed by more than 264,000 people within a week until July 30.

Curated by: Costas Argyros