The interior ministers of the states of Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg and Lower Saxony said that regional police had used the software within the parameters of the law. In Lower Saxony, the software has been in use for two years, according to the public broadcaster NDR.
Authorities in Brandenburg, meanwhile, told the daily Berliner Morgenpost that they are currently using the spyware in a single, on-going investigation. Baden-Württemberg has also used such software to investigate "individual cases," according to the Badische Zeitung.
Officials in the southern German state of Bavaria were the first to confirm late Monday that their agencies have been using a spyware program since 2009. It remains unclear whether all four states had been using the same software or not.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said in a statement that they had acted within the law, and he promised a review of the software's use. Computer security experts and German politicians say such software is likely in violation of the German constitution.
A hacker group accused the German government on Saturday of developing and using the software to spy on its own citizens. Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger called on the federal and state governments to launch a joint investigation into the matter.
"Trying to play down or trivialize the matter won't do," said Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger while at the same time warning against blanket judgments. "The citizen, in both the public and private spheres, must be protected from snooping through strict state control mechanisms."
Germany's Interior Ministry said Monday no such program was being used at a federal level...
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Sonya Angelica Diehn, Joanna Impey & Spencer Kimball @'Deutsche Welle'
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