Headnotes
to the judgement of the First Senate of 14 July 1999
- 1 BvR 2226/94 - 1 BvR 2420/95 - 1 BvR 2437/95 1. Article 10 of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law) not only provides protection
from the state taking note of telecommunications contacts. Its protection also extends to the procedures by which information and data are
processed following permissible acts of taking note of telecommunications contacts, and it extends to the use that is made of the obtained knowledge.
2. The territorial scope of protection of telecommunications privacy is
not restricted to the domestic territory. Rather, Article 10 of the Basic
Law is also applicable if an act of telecommunication that takes place
abroad is, due to the fact that it is screened and evaluated on the domestic territory, sufficiently linked with domestic action of the state.
3. Article 73 no. 1 of the Basic Law grants the Federal government the
competence to regulate the screening, utilisation and transfer of
telecommunications data by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service). On the other hand, Article 73 no. 1 of the Basic
Law does not entitle the Federal parliament to grant the Federal Intelligence Service powers that are aimed at the prevention or prosecution
of criminal offences as such.
4. Whereas the parliament empowers the Federal Intelligence Service to
conduct telecommunications monitoring that encroaches upon
telecommunications privacy, Article 10 of the Basic Law obliges the
Federal Intelligence Service to take precautionary measures against
the dangers which result from the collection and utilisation of personal data. These precautionary measures include, in particular, that the
use of obtained knowledge be bound to the objective that justified the
collection of the data in the first place.
5. The competence of the Federal Intelligence Service under § 1 and § 3
of the G 10 Act to monitor, record and evaluate the telecommunications traffic for the timely recognition of specified serious threats to
the Federal Republic of Germany from abroad and for the information
of the Federal government is, in principle, consistent with Article 10 of
the Basic Law.
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