GermanyStrafgesetzbuch, Violation of the Confidentiality of the Spoken Word
In force.
An interception and recording consent rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Consent, Prohibition
What it requires
- Do not record the non-public spoken word of another person on a sound-recording device without that person's authorization, and do not use or share a recording made without it.
- This reaches a party to the conversation: do not record the other side of your own call or meeting without authorization, even though the words were addressed to you.
- Do not use a listening device to listen in on another person's non-public spoken word that was not meant for you to hear.
- Do not publicly disclose the wording or substance of a conversation recorded or overheard without authorization where doing so is capable of harming another person's legitimate interests, unless the disclosure serves an overriding public interest.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CT.PO-P1Policies, processes, and procedures for authorizing data processing (e.g., organizational decisions, individual consent), revoking authorizations, and maintaining authorizations are established and in place.
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-005System Acceptance Testing
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Up to three years' imprisonment or a fine for recording, using, sharing, listening in on, or disclosing another person's non-public spoken word without authorization (§ 201(1) and (2)); up to five years' imprisonment or a fine where a public official or a person specially bound to public service commits the offence (§ 201(3)); attempt is punishable (§ 201(4)).
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- When is the recording of a telephone conversation "unbefugt" under section 201(1) number 1 StGB if one party is told of the recording and the other is not?
What this law does
Section 201(1) makes it a criminal offence, punishable by up to three years' imprisonment or a fine, to record another person's non-public spoken word on a sound-recording device without authorization, or to use or share such a recording.
Section 201(2) equally punishes listening in on another person's non-public spoken word with a listening device where the words were not meant for the listener, and publicly disclosing the wording or substance of words recorded or overheard this way, but only where the disclosure is capable of harming another person's legitimate interests, and not where the disclosure serves an overriding public interest.
Section 201(3) raises the maximum to five years' imprisonment where a public official or a person specially bound to public service commits the offence, and section 201(4) makes an attempt punishable. Unlike the listening-in offence, the recording offence does not require that the words were not meant for the person recording them, so a participant who records the other side of a call or meeting without authorization commits it.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app records calls or processes voice recordings.
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