In­ter­cepts and pro­vi­sion of in­for­ma­tion

• General
• Technical implementation of intercepts, provision of information (section 170 TKG)
• Manual information procedure (section 174 TKG)
• Technical Directive (TR TKÜV)
• Further documents can be found under the following links:

General

Article 10 of the Basic Law (GG) states that the privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications is inviolable and that restrictions may be ordered only pursuant to a law. One such law is the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO). The Code lists the criminal offences that warrant the interception of telecommunications and provision of information. Telecommunications may only be intercepted if an offence is particularly serious and only if other means of establishing the facts would be much more difficult or would offer no prospect of success. Orders for telecommunications interception or traffic data provision under the Code are usually issued by a court. Customer data must be provided in text form.

Orders for telecommunications interception or traffic data provision can also be issued on the basis of

• the Article 10 Act,
• the Customs Investigation Service Act (ZFdG),
• the Act on the Bundeskriminalamt (BKAG),
• the Federal Constitution Protection Act (BVerfSchG),
• and relevant state regulations on preventive telecommunications interception by the police.

Technical implementation of intercepts, provision of information (section 170 TKG)

Under the statutory provisions, anyone providing or assisting in providing telecommunications services in a business capacity must enable the authorised organisations to intercept and record an accused person's telecommunications and provide information about traffic data for the purpose of police preventive measures, when ordered in writing to do so. Section 170 TKG and the Telecommunications Interception Ordinance (TKÜV) set out whether and to what extent the telecommunications companies subject to these obligations must make arrangements for implementing intercepts or providing information. The Bundesnetzagentur is responsible for drawing up the technical requirements and checking the relevant technical equipment and organisational arrangements.

section 170 TKG

Manual information procedure (section 174 TKG)

Anyone providing or assisting in providing telecommunications services may use collected customer data (contract data) as well as data collected in accordance with section 172 TKG to fulfil information obligations with respect to certain authorities (e.g. authorities responsible for criminal and administrative offences). Pursuant to section 174(7) TKG, anyone who is providing publicly available telecommunications services is obliged to provide secure electronic interfaces for the provision of customer data. These interfaces are also used for the provision of traffic data. The Bundesnetzagentur is responsible for the development of the technical guidelines and monitoring the corresponding technical facilities and organisational arrangements.

section 174 TKG

Technical Directive (TR TKÜV)

In accordance with section 170(6) in conjunction with section 36 of the Telecommunications Interception Ordinance (TKÜV), the TR TKÜV is drawn up by the Bundesnetzagentur in consultation with the authorised bodies and with the participation of the industry associations representing the companies subject to the obligations as well as the manufacturers of interception, recording and evaluation equipment.

With coming into force of the amended TKG and TKÜV on 01.12.2021, a formal adjustment of the references to the individual obligations under the new version of sections 170 ff. TKG in the TR TKÜV was necessary. For this purpose the new version 8.0 of the TR TKÜV was prepared which otherwise does not contain any changes to the content of the existing and new obligations under the TKG and the TKÜV.

Once the drafting process has been completed and the EU notification has been finalized, version 8.0 of the TR TKÜV will be published below. With simultaneous publication of order No 9/2022 in the Offical Gazette of the Bundesnetzagentur (No 2/2022) on 26.01.2022, the new version 8.0 is considered announced, in accordance with section 210 sentence 2 TKG, two weeks after publication on the Offical Gazette.

TR TKÜV Edition 8.1 english (pdf / 2 MB)

Further documents can be found under the following links:

(The downloads are only available in German)