Federal Act
on the Intelligence Service
(Intelligence Service Act, IntelSA)

¹ In or­der to carry out its tasks, the FIS shall gath­er in­form­a­tion from sources that are pub­licly and non-pub­licly ac­cess­ible.

² For this pur­pose it shall use in­form­a­tion gath­er­ing meas­ures which do and do not re­quire au­thor­isa­tion.

³ In each case, it shall choose the in­form­a­tion gath­er­ing meas­ure that:

a.

is most suit­able and ne­ces­sary for achiev­ing a spe­cif­ic in­form­a­tion gath­er­ing ob­ject­ive; and

b.

causes the least in­ter­fer­ence with the fun­da­ment­al rights of the per­sons con­cerned.

⁴ It may gath­er per­son­al data without this com­ing to the at­ten­tion of the per­sons con­cerned.

⁵ It may not gath­er or pro­cess any in­form­a­tion re­lat­ing to polit­ic­al activ­it­ies or the ex­er­cise of free­dom of speech, as­sembly or as­so­ci­ation in Switzer­land.

⁶ It may by way of ex­cep­tion gath­er in­form­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 5 about an or­gan­isa­tion or per­son and re­cord that in­form­a­tion in re­la­tion to a per­son if there are spe­cif­ic in­dic­a­tions that the per­son is ex­er­cising their rights in or­der to pre­pare for or carry out ter­ror­ist, es­pi­on­age or vi­ol­ent-ex­trem­ist activ­it­ies.

⁷ It shall de­lete data re­cor­ded in re­la­tion to a per­son once par­ti­cip­a­tion in the activ­it­ies men­tioned para­graph 6 can be ex­cluded, but one year at the latest after the in­form­a­tion has been re­cor­ded if no such activ­it­ies have been proven up to that time.

⁸ It may also gath­er and pro­cess in­form­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 5 about or­gan­isa­tions and groups on the watch list in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 72 or their mem­bers if the threats posed by these or­gan­isa­tions and groups can be as­sessed thereby.