GermanyTelekommunikation-Digitale-Dienste-Datenschutz-Gesetz, Confidentiality of Communications (Fernmeldegeheimnis)
Also known as Telekommunikation-Telemedien-Datenschutzgesetz, TTDSG.
In force since .
An interception and recording consent rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
As of .
What it requires
- If you provide a publicly available telecommunications service, help provide one, offer a telecommunications service commercially, or operate a public telecommunications network or a telecommunications installation used commercially, keep the content of telecommunication and its circumstances secret, including whether anyone takes or took part in it and the circumstances of unsuccessful connection attempts, and keep doing so after your activity ends (TDDDG § 3(1) and (2)).NIST Privacy FrameworkPR.DS-P2
- Do not obtain knowledge of the content or circumstances of telecommunication beyond what providing the service, operating the network or installation and protecting its technical systems requires, and use what you learn only for that purpose (TDDDG § 3(3)).NIST Privacy FrameworkCT.PO-P1
- Pass on knowledge covered by the secrecy of telecommunications only where the TDDDG or another statute that expressly refers to telecommunications processes provides for it (TDDDG § 3(3)).NIST Privacy FrameworkCT.PO-P1
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-005System Acceptance Testing
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework, and in the NIST Privacy Framework, line by line beside each duty above. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit), the competent supervisory authority where data are processed in the commercial provision of telecommunications services (TDDDG § 29(1)).
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Is the provider of a messaging or chat feature built into an application an "Anbieter von öffentlich zugänglichen Telekommunikationsdiensten" under section 3(2) number 1 TDDDG?
What this law does
Section 3(1) of the Telekommunikation-Digitale-Dienste-Datenschutz-Gesetz (TDDDG) places the content of telecommunication and its circumstances, in particular whether anyone takes or took part in a telecommunication process, under the secrecy of telecommunications (Fernmeldegeheimnis). Section 3(1) extends that secrecy to the circumstances of unsuccessful connection attempts.
Section 3(2) obliges to keep the secrecy providers of publicly available telecommunications services and the persons who help provide them, providers of telecommunications services offered wholly or partly on a commercial basis and the persons who help provide them, operators of public telecommunications networks, and operators of telecommunications installations used to provide telecommunications services commercially.
The duty of secrecy continues after the activity that gave rise to it has ended. Section 3(3) bars a person bound by section 3(2) from obtaining knowledge of the content or circumstances of telecommunication beyond what providing the services, operating the networks or installations and protecting their technical systems requires.
Section 3(3) allows such knowledge to be used for another purpose, in particular passed on, only where the TDDDG or another statute provides for it and expressly refers to telecommunications processes. Section 29(1) makes the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information the competent supervisory authority where data are processed in the commercial provision of telecommunications services.
The Act, enacted as Article 1 of the Act of , took effect on . An amending Act of renamed the Telekommunikation-Telemedien-Datenschutzgesetz (TTDSG) as the TDDDG with effect from .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app provides telecom services.