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Freedom in the digital age
Art. 10

Article 10 Act

The so-called “G 10” Act allows the strategic surveillance of international telecommunications by the BND. Together with Amnesty International, we filed a constitutional complaint in 2016 and were successful in protecting privacy.

In November 2016, the GFF and Amnesty International filed a constitutional complaint against the Article 10 Act (“G 10”) in order to limit the unrestrained surveillance of communications by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). Part of the constitutional complaint fell away, in part due to the continuous efforts of the GFF and the landmark ruling obtained in Karlsruhe on the Bavarian Constitution Protection Act (BayVSG) in 2022. This landmark ruling set stricter standards for the transfer of data from intelligence services to the police and other agencies and led to a corresponding reform of the “G 10”. In this respect, we partly upheld our constitutional complaint and were partially successful: in November 2024, the Federal Constitutional Court sent a clear signal in favor of strengthening confidential communication and once again put the secret services in their place.
Bijan Moini

Bijan Moini

Legal Director

“This ruling proves that our strategic lawsuits for better protection of privacy are having an effect: step by step, the decisions we have won in front of the Federal Constitutional Court are bringing intelligence work back onto the ground of the Basic Law.”

The court based the unconstitutionality on fundamental deficiencies that could also be applied to other surveillance purposes: There was a lack of a sufficiently specific regulation on the separation of data from purely domestic communications, the core area of private life was not sufficiently protected, the documentation on encroachments on fundamental rights was deleted too quickly and the control of BND activities was inadequate, namely it had to be ensured by a court-like body. The provision declared unconstitutional must now be amended by the end of 2026.

FILING OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COMPLAINT

In November 2016, we filed a complaint against the so-called “strategic” surveillance of international telecommunications to and from Germany. We objected to the fact that the BND is allowed to spy on these telecommunications on a massive scale without concrete suspicion, even for the purpose of investigating relatively minor threats against individuals. We were also convinced that discrimination against people without a German passport is not in line with the German Basic Law.

PARTIAL SUCCESS WITH LANDMARK RULING OF 2022

The “G 10” regulations, which allowed data to be transferred to other intelligence services under insufficient conditions, have now been amended by the legislator. This means that part of our constitutional complaint against the “G 10” has been settled. This amendment is partly due to one of our successful complaints. After the Federal Constitutional Court established stricter standards for the transfer of data in a landmark ruling on the Bavarian Constitution Protection Act (BayVSG) of 2022, the “G 10” was amended.

CONSTITUTIONAL COMPLAINT TOGETHER WITH AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Our constitutional complaint was represented by Prof. Dr. Matthias Bäcker. Prof. Bäcker is one of Germany's most experienced lawyers in the field of telecommunications surveillance. He has represented both individuals involved with Amnesty International and the German section of Amnesty International before the Federal Constitutional Court. Together we have directly opposed certain passages of the law restricting the secrecy of correspondence, post and telecommunications (the so-called “G 10”).

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