Germany’s highest court ruled that the country’s foreign intelligence agency can no longer spy on the telephone and internet traffic of foreign nationals living outside of Germany.
Regulations that allowed the Bundesnachrichtendienst, or the BND, to monitor such communications violated the country’s constitution, the court ruled Tuesday.
The ruling was in favor of journalists who argued that blanket telecommunications surveillance would allow Germany to identify their sources and share the information with other countries.
Legislation enacted in 2017 allowed the BND to collect and assess communications from foreigners outside of Germany without needing to provide legal justification.
The changes were passed after a trove of classified documents from the National Security Agency leaked by Edward Snowden ensnared Germany in the surveillance scandal.
The leaks revealed the NSA directed the BND to collect information on targets that included foreign governments. A parliamentary inquiry revealed the BND was monitoring more data that flowed through an internet exchange point in Frankfurt than had been allowed, so the new law permitted the spy agency to scoop up all it wanted, including the communications of journalists.
The court said the German government has until the end of 2021 to make adjustments to the law because it violates the country’s telecommunication privacy regulations and freedom of the press.
“With its decision, the Federal Constitutional Court has clarified for the first time that the protection afforded by fundamental rights vis-a-vis German state authority is not restricted to the German territory,” the court said in a statement.
