English is not an official language of the Swiss Confederation. This translation is provided for information purposes only and has no legal force.
Section 1 Introduction
Art. 1 Subject matter and scope of application
1 This Ordinance regulates the organisational aspects of and procedure for post and telecommunications surveillance and for the provision of information on postal and telecommunications services. 2 It applies to: a. ordering authorities and the authorities directing proceedings; b. approval authorities; c. federal, cantonal and communal police forces; d. the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS); e. the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO); f. federal and cantonal authorities competent to deal with administrative criminal cases; g. the Post and Telecommunications Surveillance Service (PTSS); h. postal service providers (PSPs); i. telecommunications service providers (TSPs); j. providers of derived communication services (PDCSs); k. operators of internal telecommunications networks; l. persons who allow third parties to use their access to a public telecommunications network; m. professional retailers of cards and similar means of gaining access to a public telecommunications netw
Para. 1 — Amended by No I of the O of 15 Nov. 2023, in force since 1 Jan. 2024 (AS 2023 685). Para. 2 let. j — Amended by No I of the O of 15 Nov. 2023, in force since 1 Jan. 2024 (AS 2023 685).
Art. 2 Terms and abbreviations
The terms and abbreviations used in this Ordinance are defined in the Annex.
Section 2 Surveillance Order
Art. 3 Submissions to the PTSS
The ordering authority and the approval authority shall transmit surveillance orders and orders for their extension or termination, approvals and the access rights to be established to the PTSS as follows: a. by means of a secure means of transmission authorised by the FDJP; b. by letter, if the means of transmission in accordance with letter a is unavailable for technical reasons; or c. by telephone in urgent cases, provided the surveillance order is submitted in accordance with letter a or b within 24 hours.
Art. 3 — Amended by No I of the O of 15 Nov. 2023, in force since 1 Jan. 2024 (AS 2023 685).
Art. 4 Conduct of surveillance
1 The PTSS shall determine in specific cases the technical and organisational measures for conducting surveillance, unless these are directly specified in the applicable regulations, in particular for standardised types of information and surveillance. 2 If, as a result of operational problems, a person or entity required to cooperate is unable to meet its obligations for post or telecommunications surveillance, it shall report this to the PTSS without delay and thereafter submit a written statement of the reasons. The PTSS shall inform the person or entity required to cooperate without delay if surveillance cannot be carried out because of operational problems on its side. 3 Irrespective of where the cause of the error lies, the person or entity required to cooperate must temporarily store at least the undelivered secondary telecommunications data from real-time surveillance and deliver it without delay. If the secondary telecommunications data from real-time surveillance is no longer
Art. 4a Beginning and end of retroactive surveillance
1 Retroactive surveillance begins no earlier than 6 months before the day on which the order is received by the PTSS, i.e. on the day whose date corresponds to the date of the day on which the order is received. If the date in question does not fall within the month in which monitoring begins, monitoring begins at the earliest on the last day of that month. 2 It ends no later than the day on which the order is received by the PTSS.
Art. 4a — Inserted by No I of the O of 15 Nov. 2023, in force since 1 Jan. 2024 (AS 2023 685).
Art. 5 Protection of official or professional secrecy
If the PTSS establishes that the surveillance relates to a holder of official or professional secrets but that the statutory measures to protect these secrets have not been taken, it shall in the following situations notify the ordering authority and the approval authority without delay and initially shall not allow the former and the persons named in the surveillance order access to the surveillance data: a. if surveillance has been ordered by a civilian prosecution authority: in the case of persons from the professional groups specified in Articles 170–173 CrimPC unless measures have been taken in accordance with Article 271 CrimPC; b. if surveillance has been ordered by a military prosecution authority: in the case of persons from the professional groups specified in Article 75 letter b MCPC unless measures in accordance with Article 70b MCPC have been taken; c. if surveillance has been ordered by the FIS: in the case of persons from the professional groups specified in Articles 171
let. c — SR 121 let. c — SR 121.1
Art. 6 Duty of confidentiality
The surveillance or the provision of information shall be carried out so that neither the person concerned nor unauthorised third parties are aware of it.
Art. 7 Technical data sorting (filtering)
The PTSS shall at the request of the ordering authority carry out automated filtering if it is technically able to so and the cost and workload involved is not disproportionate.
Art. 8 Recording telephone calls as evidence
1 The PTSS shall record as evidence the telephone calls made in connection with its duties. 2 Any evaluations of the recording shall be carried out by the data protection officer or the PTSS Data Protection Commissioner. 3 The PTTS shall retain the recorded telephone calls for two years and thereafter destroy the recordings.
Para. 2 — Amended by Annex 2 No II 85 of the Data Protection Ordinance of 31 Aug. 2022, in force since 1 Sept. 2023 (AS 2022 568).
Art. 9 Surveillance file
1 The PTSS shall open a file in the processing system for each surveillance order. 2 The file contains all the documents on the case concerned, namely: a. the surveillance order and its attachments; b. the surveillance assignment or assignments issued to the relevant person or entity required to cooperate; c. the confirmation or confirmations of when the assignment was issued to the person or entity required to cooperate; d. the written acknowledgment from the person or entity required to cooperate that the surveillance assignment or assignments has or have been carried out; e. the rulings from the approval authority on the approval or non-approval of the surveillance order together with any appeal decisions; f. any extension orders and rulings from the approval authority; g. the termination order; h. the correspondence relating to the measure; i. the protection measures specially ordered; j. the accounting records. 3 The surveillance data shall be stored in accordance with Article 11
Para. 3 — SR 780.12
Section 3 Working Hours and On-Call Arrangements
Art. 10 Normal working hours and public holidays
1 Normal working hours for the PTSS and the persons or entities required to cooperate are Monday to Friday continuously from 8am to 5pm. 2 Normal working hours do not apply on public holidays. These are 1 and 2 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, 1 August, 24 December from noon, 25 and 26 December and New Year’s Eve (31 December) from noon.
Art. 11 Services outside normal working hours and on public holidays
1 Outside normal working hours and on public holidays, the PTSS, the TSPs, with the exception of those with reduced surveillance duties (Art. 51), and the PDCSs with more extensive surveillance duties (Art. 52) must provide an on-call service during which they must be available at all times in order to rectify faults and provide the following services insofar as they are required to do so in accordance with Articles 18 and 50: a. providing information in accordance with Articles 35–43, 48a–48c and in accordance with Article 27 in conjunction with the Articles 35, 40, 42 and 43; b. activating real-time surveillance in accordance with Articles 54–59; c. conducting urgent retrospective surveillance activities in accordance with Articles 60–63, 65 and 66; d. conducting missing person searches in accordance with Article 67 and wanted person searches in accordance with Article 68, with the exception of network coverage analysis in preparation for an antenna search in accordance with Article
Art. 11 — Amended by No I of the O of 15 Nov. 2023, in force since 1 Jan. 2024 (AS 2023 685).
Section 4 Statistics
Art. 12 Statistics on surveillance measures and information
1 The PTSS shall publish statistics every year about the surveillance activities ordered in the previous calendar year and the information provided. These shall indicate in particular the number: a. of surveillance measures in real time; b. of retroactive surveillance measures; c. of instances in which information was provided; d. of missing person searches; e. of wanted person searches; f. of mobile phone localisations of suspected terrorists. 2 The statistics in accordance with paragraph 1 shall indicate: a. the type of offence; b. the canton of the ordering authority, the ordering federal authority or, in the case of missing person searches, also an authority from the Principality of Liechtenstein, and in the case of information, the competent cantonal or federal authority (Art. 1 para. 2 lets c–f); c. the nature of the information, surveillance, missing person search or wanted person search or mobile phone localisation of suspected terrorists; d. the duration of surveillance, if ap
Para. 1 let. f — Inserted by No I 12 of the O of 4 May 2022 on Police Counterterrorism Measures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2022 301). Para. 2 let. c — Amended by No I 12 of the O of 4 May 2022 on Police Counterterrorism Measures, in force since 1 June 2022 (AS 2022 301).
Art. 13 Statistics on surveillance measures with special technical devices and special IT programs
1 Public prosecutor’s offices and military examining magistrates shall keep annual statistics on the special technical devices and special information technology programs used in the previous calendar year for surveillance activities (Art. 269bis para. 2 and 269ter para. 4 CrimPC and Art. 70bis para. 2 and 70ter para. 4 MCPC respectively). The statistics shall indicate the type of offence. 2 Public prosecutor’s offices and the Office of the Military Attorney General at the DDPS shall submit the statistics to the PTSS in the first quarter of the following year. The statistics shall indicate only assignments concluded in the year concerned. 3 The PTSS shall publish consolidated statistics every year. These do not contain any details of the canton of the ordering authority or the federal ordering authority.