Commentaries: Art. 38

The Confederation may operate a service for recording electro-magnetic emissions from telecommunications systems located abroad (radio communications intelligence).
Radio communications intelligence has the following purposes:
1. information gathering about events outside Switzerland that are of significance to security, in particular relating to terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and foreign conflicts that have an effect on Switzerland;
2. safeguarding of other important national interests in accordance with Article 3.
The Federal Council shall regulate the fields of communications intelligence, and the organisation and procedures for radio communications intelligence. It shall specify for how long the recorded communications and connection data may be retained by the service carrying out the communications intelligence.
It shall in particular ensure that from the recorded communications the service carrying out the communications intelligence:
1. only passes on information relating to events outside Switzerland that are of significance to security;
2. only passes on information about persons in Switzerland if the information is required to understand an event abroad and has been anonymised beforehand.
The service carrying out the communications intelligence shall pass on information about events in Switzerland obtained from the recorded communications if the information provides evidence of a specific threat to internal security in accordance with Article 6 paragraph 1 letter a.
If it comes across recorded communications in the course of its activities that contain no information about events outside Switzerland that are of significance to security and no evidence of any specific threat to internal security, it shall destroy the recordings as quickly as possible.