2023-06-05 20:32:08
Thurgovie
The police could be allowed to search your apps
Agents may in the future have the right to poke their noses into almost anyone’s phone. A very intrusive bill that seems unenforceable.
Published
WhatsApp messages would be available to patrols
20min/Celia Nogler (image d’illustration)
Examining someone’s smartphone for the slightest suspicion of a violation: that’s the dream of many police officers. The Thurgau Grand Council took a step in this direction in May. It adopted in first reading a text which almost gives carte blanche to the police in the matter, indicated Monday the “NZZ”. In short: anyone’s WhatsApp, emails and call lists could be demanded by a policeman, as long as his nose tells him that they are hiding something suspicious, even if it does not exist concrete clue. Only condition: the owner must be there during the viewing.
“Incompatible with the Constitution”
For it to be authorized, this examination must “allow the detection of crimes”. A legally vague and rather subjective notion. This is why an independent expert report was requested by elected PLR officials opposed to the project, before the deputies voted on it at second reading. Its conclusions are clear: the idea is “not compatible with the Constitution”, according to Regina Kiener, professor of public law at the University of Zurich. Federal law protects the private sphere of individuals. It sets out strict conditions for personal effects to be seized as part of an investigation. According to Regina Kiener, evidence obtained at random by the police without concrete suspicion of an offense could even be invalidated by the courts.
A vote this week
Proponents of the law, for their part, believe that it makes it possible to obtain unequaled results and that the attack on the private sphere is not an insurmountable pitfall. “Is it so serious that the police are trying to find out who I called last or what I photographed recently?”, Minimized an elected official from the Center. The Grand Council must vote on its new law this week.
Elsewhere in Switzerland, only the canton of Bern has a legal framework similar to that envisaged in Thurgau, although “significantly more restrictive”, underlines the “NZZ”.
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