Supreme Court requires individual examination of encrypted criminal chats in evidence proceedings
The Supreme Court has clarified that chat data decrypted abroad cannot automatically be treated as evidence in Austria. Constitutional complaints in drug proceedings prompted the ruling.
Supreme Court: Foreign chat evidence must be examined individually
According to the Salzburger Nachrichten, the Supreme Court has ruled that chat data obtained abroad from criminal networks cannot be used as evidence in Austria without further examination. Under EU law, it must be assessed on a case-by-case basis whether the use of such data is permissible — even though numerous final judgements have already been handed down on this basis. Constitutional complaints in drug crime cases triggered the decision.
Affected is among other things the encrypted communications service Sky ECC. In June 2021, foreign investigators conducted simultaneous raids in 16 countries in Operation "Trojan Shield" — resulting in 800 arrests worldwide, 81 of them in Austria. The domestic authorities had described the decryption of the chats at the time as a milestone in the fight against organised crime.
Source: Salzburger Nachrichten