In future, it will be easier to trace anonymous bomb threat calls in Switzerland and locate people at risk more quickly during emergency searches.
The Federal Council has introduced changes to the monitoring of telephone and internet data with effect from 1 January 2024.
The aim of the amendment is to enable more precise positioning of telephone and internet data and to continue to ensure effective criminal prosecution, the Federal Council announced on Wednesday.
During the consultation process, however, digital-savvy and left-wing circles criticised the fact that the amendment to the Act on the Surveillance of Postal and Telecommunications Traffic would lead to an expansion of surveillance.
Due to the criticism, the Federal Council has now decided not to force providers of services such as Whatsapp, Threema or Signal to remove the encryption from their chats when surveillance is ordered. …
Why did I not got wind of that, thank you for bringing it to my attention!
I see the thinking behind it and that a state needs some tools to find and prosecute criminals, and that they did not follow the UK with E2E-Ban is good to hear.
But, that the council made changes AFTER the criticism shows that we need to be more on edge and look even closer on them, and maybe even start to launch more referendums. It could be a good idea to launch an initiative that clearly states and sets surveillance laws that protect the privacy and integrity of Swiss citizens. I’m very worried that as many other countries in the last few years, Switzerland too starts to value surveillance higher than privacy.
Does any one have the legal texts, I can’t find it somehow…
Edit:
I can’t check if this is the same but what I found:
Firstly, (three) new types of information are to be created for the purpose of querying longer-term and short-term identifiers (addressing elements, device numbers, subscriber numbers, etc.). These include (1) the query of the time of the last access-relevant activity of an e-mail service in order to determine when a communication process has been completed, (2) information on the last access-relevant activity of another telecommunications or derived communications service and (3) information on neighbouring networks for telephony and multimedia services in order to solve identification problems which occur when the telephone number is forged or unknown.
In addition, (four) new types of surveillance are to be created, with which in future the exact position of a terminal device can be determined once or repeatedly (up to now, only the approximate position could be determined, for example, in an emergency search for a missing person or in real-time surveillance).