Constanze Kurz
German computer scientist and CCC spokesperson whose expert testimony fed into two landmark rulings by Germany's Constitutional Court.
Born in East Berlin in 1974 and trained at Humboldt University, Kurz became the Chaos Computer Club's go-to expert in courtrooms and parliamentary committees during the 2000s. The club demonstrated in 2006–2007 how Nedap voting machines could be tampered with, and when the issue reached the Bundesverfassungsgericht in 2009 their use was struck down: voters must be able to verify the count without being computer engineers.
She was also an expert witness in the case against German data retention, which the court annulled in 2010. With Frank Rieger she co-wrote Die Datenfresser (2011), and she has long written a column on technology policy for the German press.