Germany's largest Bitcoin exchange voluntarily handed over user data to the police, and users were speechless

According to local media reports, Germany's largest Bitcoin exchange Bitcoin.de handed over user data to the investigation department without consent.

Bitcoin.de, Germany's largest bitcoin market, voluntarily handed over user data to German police. According to local media reports, the region's investigative department has been committed to cracking down on darknet markets. The report detailed that "it is very easy to obtain user data from the Bitcoin.de exchange."

The data handed over to the police includes Bitcoin addresses, names, email addresses, addresses, account information, IP addresses, and login history. Stephan Jansen from southern Germany is a user of Bitcoin.de and he expressed dissatisfaction with the spontaneous action of the exchange. He said:

I am really speechless. I thought this company was responsible and my data was safe.

Bitcoin.de said it was fulfilling its legal reporting obligations. The company reportedly stressed that it maintains a "reliable cooperation with various government departments." The data collection action follows a series of investigations into darknet markets by law enforcement agencies in Germany and around the world. Hamburg professor and data protection commissioner Johannes Caspar said that Germany's Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) does not provide for a legal obligation to hand over data to the police. Casper said that the collection of such data can only rely on orders issued by courts and prosecutors' offices.