IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 35
that Article 2 of the Basic Law guarantees the right to
confidentiality and integrity of personal information
within systems of information technology. It was determined that surveillance of a person through the use of
such a system can only be justified if there is an overwhelming danger for other human rights outweighing
the right to personal freedom. In 1970 the practice of
data screening had been introduced in the fight against
left-wing terrorism and in particular investigations
against the red Army Faction (rAF). This practice was
outlawed by the German Constitutional Court in 20064
when the strategy was to be applied against suspected
Muslim terrorist "sleepers."
Decisions more directly aiming at acoustic and visual
surveillance were reached by the court in 2004 and 2009.
In 2004 the court decided that the far-reaching acoustic
and video surveillance of private living space was unconstitutional.5 The German Federal Employment Court
decided in the same year that the general surveillance of
work space breached personal freedoms of the employee
and was hence illegal.5 In 2009 the general video surveillance of motorways was declared unconstitutional
and equally breaching personal freedom under the basic
law.6 Only if there was suspicion of breach of a higher
constitutional law, could surveillance be allowed. It follows from those decisions that surveillance through the
state, as well as by citizen vs. citizen, has been declared
unconstitutional (state) or illegal (citizen) under the German Basic Law. Case law on "sousveillance" does not
yet exist. However, the discussion of surveillance and
whistle blowing can give insights as to how such cases
could be decided in the future.
The value of surveillance, sousveillance, and
"whistle-blowing" could be determined on the background of its admissibility as evidence in both criminal and civil court procedures. It can be argued that
the admissibility of sousveillance evidence (audio/
video/photographs) in court could have significant
impact on law enforcement behavior. The right to privacy under Article 2 of the Basic Law determines that
nobody can use the picture of a person without his/her
consent for display in public. The courts have decided
that a "display in public" even applies to the use of
pictures as evidence in a criminal/civil court process,
as the court is considered to be an audience and "a
public."7 However, the right to informational selfdetermination can be weighed against rights infringed
(proportionality). Therefore, surveillance can produce
4
BverfGE 93, 181.
BVerfG, 1 Bvr 2378/98 vom 3.3.2004.
6
BAG vom 14.12.2004, 1 ABr 34/03.
7
BVerfG vom 01.08.2009 - 2 Bvr 941/08.
admissible evidence if the state action was permitted under judicial warrant, or if a private person had
a direct suspicion, for example, that an employee is
committing criminal offenses at the workplace. However, if persons other than the suspect are subject to
surveillance, the video/audio/photograph cannot be
used as evidence.8
until 2001 the admissibility of private video surveillance evidence had never been questioned before
criminal courts in Germany. Private videos had without
fail been used by the courts to convict criminal offenders. This attitude changed drastically with the Magistrate Court Stuttgart decision (8 Cs 32 Js 61688/00) of
2001. The court determined that, if a video is taken in
a private space accessible by the public, it needs to be
obvious that recording is taking place or the consent
of every recorded person has to be sought, or there has
to be an official law enforcement purpose or suspicion
for the recording. In any other circumstances, the Court
considered the recording a breach of the Copyright Law
(as the video/audio/picture was presented to "a public"
in Court). This decision even led to the amendment of
the German Federal Data Protection Law (§6(b)) in
2001. Strict limitations therefore apply today (depending on situational or fixed camera) for video/audio surveillance in private spaces open to the public.
With regard to private spaces not open to the public,
there needs to be a suspicion of a crime being committed
and no recording of any other persons, but the suspect, is
to be conducted.9 This is today the situation with regard
to both criminal and civil cases. Several civil cases did
not admit private audio/video/photographic evidence as
surveillance of non-suspects. As pointed out before, no
case law on sousveillance so far exists.
With a view to the use of sousveillance as evidence
in criminal and civil liability cases it can be foreshadowed that these would not be decided very differently
from cases of "whistle blowing," but the evidence
would be less restricted than state evidence against
citizens (restriction by warrant or "immediate danger"
requirement). The proportionality principle (balancing
of rights) applies in all three cases (surveillance/sousveillance/whistle blowing) as under the basic law no
right can be infringed if this is not justified by an equal
or higher right endangered.
Author Information
The author is a lecturer in criminal law at Queen
Mary university of London, London, E1 4NS u.K.
Email: s.m.hufnagel@qmul.ac.uk.
5
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE
8
9
|
SuMMEr 2014
Magistrate Court Stuttgart (8 Cs 32 Js 61688/00).
OLG Köln (Az. 24 u 12/05).
|
35
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - Cover1
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - Cover2
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 1
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 2
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 3
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 4
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 5
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 6
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 7
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 8
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 9
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 10
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 11
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 12
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 13
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 14
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 15
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 16
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 17
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 18
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 19
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 20
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 21
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 22
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 23
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 24
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 25
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 26
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 27
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 28
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 29
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 30
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 31
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 32
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 33
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 34
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 35
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 36
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 37
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 38
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 39
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 40
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 41
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 42
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 43
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 44
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 45
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 46
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 47
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 48
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 49
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 50
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 51
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 52
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 53
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 54
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 55
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 56
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 57
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 58
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 59
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 60
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 61
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 62
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 63
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 64
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 65
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 66
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 67
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 68
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 69
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 70
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 71
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 72
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 73
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 74
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 75
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 76
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 77
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 78
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 79
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 80
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - Cover3
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2013
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com