Digital society wants to fight internet surveillance legally

The Digital Society announced on Thursday that it was lodging a complaint against the cable reconnaissance. It is a case of "mass surveillance" without cause, which seriously violates the fundamental right to privacy and also affects other fundamental rights.

The first step in the complaint is a request to the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS). The Digital Society is asking the service to refrain from cable reconnaissance. If the FIS does not comply with the request, it intends to take further legal action.

Search for keywords

Cable reconnaissance gives the intelligence service access to communications via fiber optic cables. The data streams are recorded and searched for specific keywords. If a keyword is found, the communication is analyzed in depth. This is a kind of dragnet search, writes the Digitale Gesellschaft. Everyone is under suspicion. "Anyone who uses the internet is being monitored."

Cable reconnaissance - like the radio reconnaissance already permitted today - constitutes an encroachment on fundamental rights. It affects the right to respect for intimate, private and family life, the right to protection of privacy and the right to protection against misuse of personal data as well as informational self-determination.

Questionable benefit

"These standards give every person the right to communicate with other people free from state surveillance," writes the Digitale Gesellschaft in its application to the FIS. Interference with fundamental rights is only lawful if it is suitable and necessary to achieve the intended purpose. In addition, the public interest must prevail.

In the view of the Digital Society, these requirements are not met in the case of radio and cable reconnaissance. It is true that the aim is to safeguard important public interests. However, radio and cable reconnaissance can hardly contribute anything to safeguarding these interests, as it is a very unspecific approach.

Enlarge haystack

The Digital Society argues that the tool is not aimed at a specific person based on a specific suspicion. As a result, there is a risk of having so much irrelevant data that it is impossible to find the important pieces of data - the needle in the haystack. Radio and cable reconnaissance is therefore not proportionate and not justified.

Other requirements are also not met in the view of the critics. For example, the Intelligence Service Act should clearly state what the subject of cable reconnaissance is and who is affected and in what way. This is not the case.

Particular concern

In order to legitimize its actions, Digitale Gesellschaft claims to be particularly affected. According to the letter to the intelligence service, the applicants work as journalists and are therefore particularly affected by radio and cable reconnaissance. In order to carry out their profession, they are increasingly dependent on being able to research and contact other people free from surveillance and while protecting their sources.

The fact that the Intelligence Service Act only permits the use of cross-border signals does not change anything in the view of the critics. If, for example, emails sent or received via an email provider abroad were to be recorded, this would be considered cross-border communication - even if the sender and recipient were located in Switzerland. (SDA)