Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) continues to collect more information than the law allows. This is the conclusion of the parliamentary supervisory authority.
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In its annual report, released on Thursday, the delegation stated that the FIS had violated the law by collecting thousands of unnecessary newspaper articles, agency reports and texts from websites.
The report is also critical of the cantonal intelligence services, pointing out that unless there is suspicion of terrorism or espionage, the procurement of information on political activities is illegal.
Data kept too long
A few years ago, it came to light that Kurdish politicians had been under surveillance in Basel. The control delegation determined that the relevant information had not been deleted even after 15 years.
The FIS should pay more attention to the limits of the law when collecting data, says the delegation’s report. Sometimes, the records lacked details about sources, recipients, and the reasons for the data collection.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
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