Telecommunications Surveillance Ordinance

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basic data
Title: Ordinance on the technical and organizational implementation of measures to monitor telecommunications
Short title: Telecommunications Surveillance Ordinance
Shortcut: TKUV
Type: Federal Ordinance
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Waived due to: § 88 TKG
legal matter: Special administrative law , telecommunications law
Proof of locality : 900-15-3
Original version from: January 22, 2002 ( BGBl. I p. 458 )
Effective date: January 29, 2002
New announcement from: July 11, 2017
( BGBl. I p. 2316, 2317 )
Last update dated: November 3, 2005
( BGBl. I p. 3136 )
Effective date of the
new version:
November 9, 2005
Last change by: Art. 6 G of July 5, 2021
( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2274, 2279 )
Effective date of the
last change:
July 9, 2021
(Art. 8 G of July 5, 2021)
GESTA : B109
Please note the information on the applicable version of the law .

The German Telecommunications Surveillance Ordinance ( TKÜV ) was issued on January 22, 2002 by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology . It contains regulations as to which technical precautions are to be provided by whom, so that all the necessary interfaces are already available in the event of a possible later telecommunications surveillance. The monitoring of the communication itself, on the other hand, is governed by the other provisions, in particular the Code of Criminal Procedure .

The Telecommunications Surveillance Ordinance replaced the previous Telecommunications Traffic Surveillance Ordinance (FÜV).

purpose of the regulation

The ordinance aims to:

  1. the telecommunications interception measures mentioned in laws (such as the Code of Criminal Procedure ) are regulated.
  2. the approval procedure and the acceptance procedure are defined.
  3. be determined in which telecommunications systems the technical facilities required by the Telecommunications Act for the implementation of surveillance measures are not to be designed and provided,
  4. Regulations are made for the exceptional cases provided for in the Telecommunications Act, in which the fulfillment of individual technical requirements can be waived,
  5. the requirements for the network access according to the Telecommunications Act are specified, to which the recording devices of the authorized bodies are connected, as well as

This ordinance applies to the operators of telecommunications systems by means of which telecommunications services are offered to the public (Section 3 No. 17 of the Telecommunications Act ).

This means that in principle all operators of telecommunications systems who offer their services to the public are obliged to record and forward communication data to law enforcement agencies. It doesn't matter whether it's voice or data. However, providers with a maximum of 10,000 "participants" (customers) are exempt from certain obligations ( section 3 (2) sentence 1 no. 5 TKÜV): They do not have to take "any precautions" for monitoring. This means that they do not have to have a so-called SINA box ready with which they can transmit the data to the authorities via the SINA network, but rather set up monitoring if necessary.

implementation

The technology must be financed by the telecommunications providers themselves. Before the systems are put into operation, acceptance of the monitoring equipment must be obtained from the Federal Network Agency . The deadline for the introduction of the technical measures by the telecommunications providers ended on December 31, 2004.

Since the beginning of 2005, the Federal Criminal Police Office , the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution , the Customs Criminal Police Office , the Federal Public Prosecutor and some state offices have had the necessary technology to store and evaluate the logged data. The “authorized bodies” also include simple police headquarters. These can currently request administrative assistance with a monitoring measure from the above-mentioned, better equipped bodies.

A surveillance order, as sent to the telecommunications provider (e.g. the e-mail provider) of the person being monitored, contains, among other things:

  • "authorized body"
  • postal address
  • telephone number or e-mail address to be monitored
  • reference number
  • alleged facts
  • FTP server (with access data) of the "authorized body" to which the collected data is transferred in encrypted form (alternatively, the data can also be burned onto CD-R and sent unencrypted by post.)

criticism

Criticism of the ordinance comes from the affected companies and data protection officers . Telecom companies and Internet service providers complain about the costs that have been passed on to the operators. Data protectionists, on the other hand, criticize what they believe to be far too much comprehensive monitoring. Above all, hackers criticize the fact that creating opportunities for eavesdropping always creates opportunities for abuse.

The current practice of not only sending the e-mail address to be monitored to the telecommunications provider in the event of surveillance, but also the alleged facts of the case, appears to be highly problematic.

In autumn 2002, the Federal Minister responsible for TKÜV, Werner Müller , received a Big Brother Award in the “Communication” category.

Heinz Fromm , President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution , was the initiator of the Telecommunications Monitoring Ordinance in 1994 , the predecessor of the Telecommunications Monitoring Ordinance .

See also

web links