Security News > 2020 > May > Court Curbs German Spies' Foreign Internet Surveillance
Germany's foreign intelligence service violated the constitution by spying on internet data from foreigners abroad, the nation's top court ruled Tuesday in a victory for overseas journalists who brought the case.
The BND agency's surveillance violates "The fundamental right to privacy of telecommunications" and freedom of the press, judges at the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe said in their verdict.
Given the "Great importance" of foreign surveillance to German security, the court gave the BND until the end of 2021 to change its practices and comply with the law.
The ruling marked the first time the Constitutional Court clearly stated that the BND must respect fundamental rights accorded by the Germany's Basic Law constitution even when operating abroad. German intelligence services are already not allowed to monitor the internet traffic of Germans in such a vast way.
The judges called for stricter rules to govern the BND's overseas internet monitoring, including clearly defined thresholds to decide who should be targeted, and limits on sharing and storing the collected data.