Telecommunications surveillance: New legal basis for analysis functions
An amendment to the Federal Act on the Surveillance of Postal and Telecommunications Traffic (BÜPF) will come into force on May 1, 2022. The amendment is intended to create a new legal basis for more targeted analysis of telecommunications surveillance data.
In order to investigate serious criminal offences or in the event of a threat to national security, law enforcement authorities and the intelligence service can order measures to monitor postal and telecommunications traffic. The data required for this is registered in the telecommunications monitoring processing system (V-FMÜ).
According to a statement from the federal government, the analysis functions allow, among other things, tabular data to be visualized so that it can be quickly recorded in a graph. This should help law enforcement agencies save valuable time when solving serious crimes or conducting an emergency search for a missing person.
The law enforcement authorities set already today the analysis functions, based on the Ordinance on the Processing System for the Surveillance of Postal and Telecommunications Traffic (VVS-ÜPF). The explicit legal basis was previously missing. Parliament has now created this on 11 March 2022 with the adoption of the amendments to Articles 7 and 8 BÜPF. The amendment to the Federal Act will enter into force on May 1, 2022.
Source: The Federal Council
