Internet surveillance in Switzerland
The Internet monitoring in Switzerland found both within law enforcement and preventive as well as domestic and foreign intelligence services instead.
This involves telecommunications monitoring of Internet connections that at least partially run over Swiss territory or are monitored from Swiss territory.
Protection of fundamental rights
Article 13 of the Federal Constitution explicitly guarantees the confidentiality of every person in relation to telecommunications in Switzerland as part of the fundamental right to protect privacy . Exceptions require a legal basis, a public interest and must adhere to the principle of proportionality .
A complaint is pending at the Federal Administrative Court regarding the question of whether data retention is proportionate.
Supervision by the judiciary
The Code of Criminal Procedure and the Federal Act on the Monitoring of Post and Telecommunications (BÜPF) regulate the powers of the public prosecutor's offices to investigate criminal offenses, while the military criminal process regulates the powers of the military justice system . In both cases, the prior consent of a judicial authority is required in order to monitor suspects or third parties on the Internet.
Preventive police surveillance
As part of prevention , the police monitor activities in chat rooms , internet forums and file sharing platforms at national and cantonal level .
Internet monitoring by the Swiss intelligence service
The intelligence service can issue orders for cross-border radio reconnaissance and thus also monitor Internet communications in order to identify threats to the country's internal and external security. At the time of the investigation by the business audit delegation of the federal councils , 30 search requests with between five and several hundred selectors each were active.
With the new Intelligence Service Act, cable reconnaissance should also be permitted. This would also enable the telecommunications connections that lead from Switzerland to other countries to be searched using defined keywords.
Espionage by foreign intelligence services
The documents made available by Edward Snowden show that the United States’s Geneva Mission is monitoring local communications.
Protection of minors in schools
In order to implement a content filter , internet traffic in Swiss schools is comprehensively monitored.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Art. 36 BV
- ↑ Handelszeitung: Federal government rejects complaint against surveillance , dated July 1, 2014.
- ^ Federal law on competences in the area of the civil intelligence service
- ^ Satellite reconnaissance system of the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport ("Onyx" project). (PDF) Report of the business audit delegation of the Federal Assembly of November 10, 2003. In: Bundesblatt 2004. April 6, 2004, pp. 1499–1546 , accessed on September 11, 2017 .
- ↑ Tages-Anzeiger: The secret service also wants to tap into the Internet cables , from March 12, 2015.
- ↑ Comprehensive Internet monitoring in Swiss schools
