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New figures show: this is how often cantons evaluate passersby’s mobile phone data
The canton of Vaud has monitored a large part of its population to catch a group of thieves. The trend clearly shows: across Switzerland, prosecutors are increasingly delving into the communications of innocent citizens.
It is probably the most far-reaching such measure that has been used in Switzerland to date: tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens were targeted by the Vaudois prosecution last year. If they were in a certain area at the wrong time, their presence was logged and recorded, who they texted and who they spoke to on the phone.
The reason for the surveillance of their own population: Prosecutors are looking for the perpetrators of a series of attacks on money carriers, which caused outrage in western Switzerland. With Kalashnikovs and explosives, the criminals stole the valuable cargo from six money transporters overnight. They captured millions.
As is now known, Vaudois prosecutors used a controversial agent in their investigation to an extent that was previously unknown in Switzerland. The so-called antenna search. Authorities can use it to find out which cell phones were dialed on a particular antenna during a certain period of time. You can see who these people spoke to by phone or text. And who was where and for how long.
Federal statistics lift the veil on the secret measure
Surveillance is really secret. But now, of all things, official federal statistics are lifting the veil. It shows that the canton of Vaud evaluated 981 antennas last year. That’s an extremely high figure: Vaud carried out the same number of surveys as the rest of Switzerland adds.
When consulted, the prosecutor said that the monitoring of the almost 1,000 antennas was based on “a maximum of ten serious incidents” and referred to the robberies of money trucks.
Attorney Martin Steiger is the spokesperson for the digital society, which has long opposed the antenna search method of surveillance. “It is a form of massive surveillance that affects innocent people without cause and without suspicion,” says the lawyer.
Martin Steiger: “From our point of view, such evaluations are not provided” Photo: trapezoidal
The high number of antennas analyzed when there are few incidents can mean two things: either the prosecution has evaluated a large area or has monitored the antennas in certain locations, for example, along the highway, for a longer period of time. Because the trace is always included in the statistics in blocks of two hours. “If you monitor along traffic routes, as is apparently the case in this case, hundreds of thousands will potentially be affected. From our point of view, that is not proportionate, ”says attorney Martin Steiger.
The excessive use of the Vaud prosecutor’s office in the context of assault investigations is a departure from the usual practice, that is, the targeted questioning of a small area at the time of a crime.
Barriers to expanding surveillance were minimal. It is clear that a judge from the canton of Vaud allowed the surveillance. The law requires the approval of a court of binding measures. However, the decisions are secret. This means that the balance between the invasion of the privacy of thousands of citizens and the success of the investigation remains low key.
The surveillance cost a quarter of a million Swiss francs
A problem for the digital society is the lack of transparency. “All the people who get caught up in this raster search will never find out. Everything is wrapped in a blanket of silence, ”says Steiger. Claim: “All those affected must be informed by SMS so that they can defend themselves if necessary.”
Just a few years ago, prosecutors used aerial searches with great reluctance. In 2014, a little over 100 radio cells were evaluated. Last year there were more than 1700. For Steiger, the development was inevitable: “The security authorities test each new surveillance method. Regardless of whether it was actually intended as a last resort. “
The thesis seems confirmed: the canton of Aargau, which does not have an excessive number of criminal offenses, ranks second with 310 records: the canton made known nationwide antenna records a few years ago when the method allowed to arrest the quadruple murderer of Rupperswil.
In the case of the money carrier, antenna searches in Vaud cost almost a quarter of a million francs in fees. The Vaudois prosecution does not say whether the effort has provided clues about the perpetrators, with reference to the secrecy of the investigation.
