Electronic surveillance

BND: Court curbs German spy agency's bugging abroad

Germany's highest court has ruled that laws allowing the country's BND foreign intelligence service to spy on foreigners' telecommunications outside Germany breach fundamental rights.

The Constitutional Court case was brought by foreign journalists, who say the ruling is a win for press freedom.

The BND will no longer be able to monitor the emails or other data of foreigners abroad, without good reason.

Currently some of that data is passed on to other countries' spy agencies.

The key question considered by the court was whether the German state was bound by the protections of the constitution outside the country.

The BND (Federal Intelligence Service) is already barred from snooping on German citizens' internet data abroad but the new ruling means that German spies will only be able to monitor foreign nationals abroad if there is evidence of a threat.