Federal Act
on the Surveillance of Post and Telecommunications
(SPTA)

¹ Out­side crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may or­der sur­veil­lance of post and tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions in or­der to find a miss­ing per­son.

² A per­son is con­sidered miss­ing if the fol­low­ing con­di­tions are met:

a.

his or her where­abouts are un­known or dis­pro­por­tion­ately dif­fi­cult to de­term­ine; and

b.

there are ser­i­ous in­dic­a­tions that his or her health or life are in grave danger.

³ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may em­ploy tech­nic­al equip­ment in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 269^bis Crim­PC⁴³, provided the pre­vi­ous meas­ures for tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions sur­veil­lance pur­su­ant to Art. 269 Crim­PC have been un­suc­cess­ful, or a search us­ing these meas­ures would be fu­tile or dis­pro­por­tion­ately dif­fi­cult. It shall pro­duce stat­ist­ics on sur­veil­lance in ac­cord­ance with Art. 269^bis Crim­PC.

⁴ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may also in­spect data on third parties where this ap­pears ne­ces­sary in the cir­cum­stances in or­der to find the miss­ing per­son.