measures in other countries.
The free development of one’s personality within the core of private life encompasses the possibility of expressing internal processes, reflections, views and experiences
of a highly personal nature. Protection is afforded particularly to non-public communication with persons enjoying the highest level of personal trust, conducted under
the reasonable assumption that no surveillance is taking place. Such conversations
do not lose their overall personal character merely because they concern both highly
personal and everyday matters (cf. BVerfGE 141, 220 <276 and 277 para. 121; 279
para. 128; 314 and 315 para. 243>; established case-law).
201
However, communications in which criminal acts are discussed and planned do not
form part of the core of private life, not even when they also concern highly personal
matters. This does not mean that the core of private life is subject to a general requirement to conduct a balancing against public security interests. A highly personal
conversation is not excluded from the core of private life simply because it could provide insights that could be helpful for the investigation of criminal acts or for public
security. Statements made in the course of a conversation that only reveal inner impressions and feelings and do not contain any indications pointing to specific criminal
acts do not simply become relevant to the public because they might reveal the reasons or motives for criminal conduct. Furthermore, despite having some link to criminal acts, situations in which individuals are in fact encouraged to admit wrongdoing
or to prepare for the consequences thereof, such as confessions or confidential conversations with a psychotherapist or defence lawyer, are part of the highly personal
domain (cf. in this respect in more detail BVerfGE 141, 220 <276 and 277 paras. 121
and 122>; established case-law).
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bb) The legislator must enact provisions specifically protecting the core of private
life.
203
First and foremost, it must be absolutely impermissible to make the core of private
life a target of state investigations and to use information relating to that core in any
way or to otherwise base further investigations on it. This also applies to strategic
surveillance. In line with the notion of the core of private life set out above, protection
of that core must not be limited to situations which exclusively concern highly personal matters.
204
Moreover, the core of private life must be protected both at the stage of data collection and at the stage of data analysis. However, the requirements for how this protection is to be ensured by law differ based on the type of the surveillance measures in
question (cf. BVerfGE 141, 220 <279 para. 127>).
205
Accordingly, where data collection and the use of search terms for strategic surveillance measures are concerned, legislative safeguards going beyond the prohibition
of the targeted collection of data from the core of private life are not required. Given
that it can generally not be ascertained from the search terms as such that communi-
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