Cellphone Bugging Rises

Germany's Federal Network Agency has published the number of authorised phone bugging requests carried out under the Code of Criminal Procedure. According to these statistics German courts last year ordered 35,015 intercepts of telecommunications as well as ordering the renewal of 7,943. These orders affected 34,855 mobile phone numbers and 5,398 fixed line numbers (analogue and ISDN).

The diagram shows a clear increase in the number of mobile phone intercepts. The number of mobile phone subscribers also increased during this period.

Operators of telecommunications systems are obliged to enable authorised parties to intercept calls, to collate annual statistics of the intercepts carried out under the Code of Criminal Procedure and to communicate these statistics to the Federal Network Agency. According to the Code of Criminal Procedure intercepts are only admissible in cases of particularly serious crimes. All intercepts require a court order."

Posted to the site on 1st May 2006