‘A violation of fundamental rights’ – Civil society calls on Switzerland to abandon data retention proposals
Publish Date: 2026-02-04 11:37:00
Source Domain: www.techradar.com
- Civil society organizations urge Switzerland to drop surveillance law expansion
- The proposal would force VPNs, messaging apps, social media to retain more data
- The Swiss government is in the process of revising the amendment
A coalition of 19 civil society groups has warned that Switzerland’s proposal to extend data retention requirements could violate fundamental human rights.
In an open letter published on Wednesday, organizations including Amnesty International Switzerland, European Digital Rights (EDRi), Privacy International, and Algorithm Watch urged lawmakers to “abandon any proposals” for wide-ranging, blanket data retention obligations.
The proposed expansion of Swiss surveillance powers has faced significant pushback from local politicians and privacy-focused tech firms like Proton, NymVPN, and Threema. While these tensions recently led the Federal Parliament to agree to a revision of the amendment, experts have told TechRadar that the government may still look to increase data collection.
You may like
The risks of the new Swiss surveillance law
Switzerland was once considered the global gold standard for privacy, but that reputation was challenged last year when the government proposed amending its surveillance law, known as the Ordinance on the Surveillance of Post and Telecommunications Traffic (VÜPF).
The changes aim to extend monitoring and data collection obligations – which currently apply to telecoms and internet service providers (ISPs) – to “derived service providers.” This broad new category includes VPN services, messaging apps, and social media platforms.
Crucially, the proposal would force these companies to collect and store specific metadata that could be used to identify users.
This would allow law enforcement to retroactively identify individuals behind specific internet connections. European Digital Rights (EDRi) argues: “Such levels of surveillance are unacceptable in a democratic society and seriously interfere with people’s…
