the basis of the search concepts is only possible in the field of telex transmission.
In the case of fax transmission, which has been a part of strategic surveillance only
since October 1997, only the formal search concepts can be screened automatically,
whereas content-based selection is carried out by Federal Intelligence Service staff.
In telephone traffic, neither an automatic selection of a subscriber number nor an automatic selection of content is presently possible. In particular, voice recognition procedures are not yet sophisticated enough to allow their application by the Federal Intelligence Service. For this reason, screening based on voice recognition is presently
carried out in only a few selected cases.
b) As regards the legal aspects of the matter, the Federal Minister of the Interior
made the following arguments:
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aa) The Federal Minister of the Interior argued that the constitutional complaints are
inadmissible. The Federal Minister of the Interior claimed that strategic telecommunications surveillance does not constitute "monitoring" of the complainants' telecommunications traffic. The mere possibility that telecommunications traffic in which the
complainants engage is covered by monitoring acts and not immediately discarded
as irrelevant is not sufficient to assume that there is an increased probability of the
complainants' fundamental rights being impaired. Moreover, the second of the three
constitutional complaints (1 BvR 2420/95) is inadmissible because the complainants
live abroad and the second of the two complainants bringing the second constitutional complaint (2b) is not a German citizen so that the territorial aspect of the possible
encroachment upon telecommunications privacy, which is required for the protection
of a fundamental right, is missing. The Federal Minister of the Interior argued that
telecommunications surveillance measures taken by the Federal Intelligence Service
that cover the telecommunications traffic of foreigners within foreign countries are not
directed against individuals who are protected by Article 10 of the Basic Law.
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It is true, in the opinion of the Federal Minister of the Interior, that telecommunications privacy, with respect to its application to individuals, certainly protects Germans
and foreigners alike. This, however, neither constitutes a decision about the factual
scope of protection provided by this fundamental right nor a decision about whether
its protection also extends to acts of state power by the German authorities, and to
the effects of those acts, that occur and arise outside the territorial scope of the Basic
Law and beyond the territorial sovereignty of Germany. The protection of fundamental rights as against the power of the German state is not exclusively restricted to the
German territory. The Federal Minister of the Interior asserted, however, that the
facts that are to constitute an encroachment upon fundamental rights must nevertheless show a reference to the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany which justifies the need for protection. The Federal Minister of the Interior objected to the claim
that the power of the German state is everywhere and indiscriminately bound to the
fundamental rights, a claim that, in his opinion, does not have general recognition.
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The Federal Minister of the Interior argued that the general principles concerning the
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