LexLint

Know the law your code answers to.

Law / Germany

Strafgesetzbuch, Violation of the Confidentiality of the Spoken Word

StGB § 201

A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.

What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.

In force.

An interception and recording consent rule binding public and private bodies.

As of .

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.

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)).

What it reaches

Obligation class

Consent, Prohibition

What this law does

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.

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

  • records_conversations
  • processes_voice

Read the law

Official text, Bundesministerium der Justiz and Bundesamt für Justiz, gesetze-im-internet.de

Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.

Back to the example  ·  Lint your app