Headnotes
to the judgment of the First Senate of 24 April 2013
1 BvR 1215/07
1. The counter-terrorism database, in the form of a joint database of various security agencies with the purpose of combating international terrorism, which is essentially limited to facilitating access to information, and stipulates that the data may be used for operational tasks
only in urgent and exceptional cases, is in its fundamental design
compatible with the Constitution.
2. Under the fundamental right to informational self-determination, provisions that permit the transfer of information between the police and intelligence services are subject to heightened constitutional requirements. From the fundamental rights follows a principle of separation
of information (informationelles Trennungsprinzip) that permits such
transfers only in exceptional cases.
3. With regard to the data to be included and their potential uses, a joint
database shared among security agencies, such as the counterterrorism database, must have a legal design that is sufficiently specific and conforms to the prohibition of disproportionate measures. The
Counter-Terrorism Database Act does not fully meet this requirement,
namely with regard to the following issues: the identification of the
participating agencies, the range of persons included as affiliated with
terrorism, the inclusion of contact persons, the use of covertly provided extended basic data, the authorisation of security agencies to define the specific rules for using the data to be stored, and the guarantee of effective supervision.
4. The unrestricted inclusion in the counter-terrorism database of data
that were collected by interfering with the privacy of correspondence
and telecommunications and the right to the inviolability of the home
violates Art. 10 sec. 1 and Art. 13 sec. 1 GG.
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