Statistics Service Surveillance Postal and Telecommunications Traffic OPF

The Swiss prosecution authorities and the Federal intelligence service (FIS) may order post and telecommunications surveillance measures for the purpose of investigating serious criminal offences based on the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code and the Federal Intelligence Service Act. The PTSS is obliged to produce statistics on surveillance measures based on Art. 16 para. 1 let. k of the Federal Act on Post and Telecommunications Surveillance (SPTA).

Although the number of monitoring measures has fallen this year, it is still slightly above the average of the last five years. While real-time monitoring is within this average, retrospective monitoring is slightly higher. However, emergency searches and tracing of persons show a strong increase compared to the above-mentioned average, while antenna searches are slightly lower.

The Articles 269bis and 269ter of the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code allow the use of special technical devices (IMSI catchers) and computer software (govware) for telecommunications surveillance.

In 2023, 9 operations used this special computer software (7 in the previous year). The number of operations using special technical devices (IMSI-Catcher) amounts to 160 compared to 120 in the previous year.

Note: The numbers presented by FIS and those by the PTSS are not comparable due to a different counting method.