Technical implementation under § 110 of the TKG
-Implementation of intercepts, provision of information-
General
Under Art. 10 of the Basic Law the privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications is inviolable; restrictions may be ordered only pursuant to a law. For example, the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO) is such a law. This Code specifically lists the criminal offences for wich telecomunications interception or the provision of information about telecommunications traffic data is at all possible. Hence telecommunications may only be intercepted in cases involving particularly serious crime. However, telecommunications intercepts are only permitted if investigating the matter by other means would be futile or be much more complicated.
Under the StPO, intercepts and requests for information about traffic data are generally subject to a court order.
Other acts on which court orders for the interception of telecomunications or the provision of traffic data may be based are the Act concerning Article 10, the Customs Investigation Service Act, the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) Act, the Federal Constitution Protection Act, the Federal Armed-Forces Counter-Intelligence Act and acts under state law (Police Acts).
Technical implementation
Legal provisions require that anyone commercially providing or assisting in the commercial provision of telecommunications services is obliged to enable the authorised bodies to intercept and record the telecommunications of an accused and to provide the relevant information when a written judicial order to this effect is received. Whether and to what extent the telecommunications enterprises obliged to assist must make arrangements for the implementation of interceepts or the provision of information is set forth in § 110 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG) and in the Telecommunications Interception Ordinance (TKÜV). The Federal Network Agency is responsible for drawing up the technical specifications and checking the relevant technical facilities and organisational arrangements.