While the European Commission has been seeking to set up rules to give citizens back control over of their personal data by reforming data protection rules, a draft law has been released by the German Interior Ministry that takes aim at the privacy rights of German citizens.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere has proposed limiting the rights of data protection authorities to investigate breaches of people's medical and legal records, Deutsche Welle (DW) reported November 25.

The draft law is supposed to implement stricter privacy rules the EU has set, which will take effect in 2018. But in fact, it could have the opposite effect and curtail EU law and privacy rights.

According to the draft law, released by the German union for data protection (DVD) this week, facial recognition software for video surveillance will be allowed, while citizens will no longer have a right to know what information is being collected about them if "the release of the data endangers public safety and order, or disadvantages the well-being of the country, or the state in another way," DW reported.

The law drew fire from several officials, including current DVD board member Thilo Weichert, who scrapped Maiziere's plan as a "massive" erosion of privacy in Germany.

"The limitation of data protection controls in the medical field, which was a focal point of the [data protection] authorities up until now, is simply a disaster," Weichert said in a statement.

The DVD acknowledged that the draft has been improved after its previous presentation by the Interior Ministry. "And yet the draft […] contains old and in some cases new European-law-breaching and unconstitutional and unacceptable regulations," the organization said in its statement.

The DVD called the rights of citizens to know about access to their data the "Magna Carta of data protection."

The law also drew criticism from the Federal Data Protection Commissioner's Office (BfDI), whose commissioner, Andrea Vosshoff, said the plan would make "control by the BfDI in many sensitive areas, for instance health insurance companies, job centers, or other social service operators, almost impossible, and is not acceptable."

Germany, up to now very protective of its citizens' privacy, seems to be taking a step back.