Basic Law, Article 10, para. 1

The privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications shall be inviolable.

The right to confidential communications is often referred to as “telecommunications secrecy” today. It protects every form of information transmission to individual recipients, whether by cable or wirelessly. The contents, place, time, type and form of communication are considered confidential until the point that lawful restrictions must take effect. For example, Section 100a of the Criminal Procedure Code – “Telecommunication Surveillance” – governs the extent to which authorities can access otherwise confidential communications.

The photograph shows a common sight at a bus stop in Neuss. The waiting passengers are engaging in wireless mobile communication. Can they can put their trust in telecommunications secrecy? This question has been the subject of much heated debate since at least 2013, when Chancellor Merkel declared that “spying among friends is completely unacceptable.”