I have to keep it quite general here but if you have any advice on the following situation I d appreciate it.
Was at a general assembly yesterday (not public, private) where towards the end we discovered one person (just had the proxy right from the person who would have needed to attend) was secretly letting a third party listen to the entire meeting via open phone line. He had the mobile in his breast pocket with a cover over it. No excuse, no comment nothing, just takes the phone out and demonstratively turns it off when asked why there are funny noises coming from him and if he is taping the meeting/sharing the meeting. This person is also known to be very disruptive and aggressive.
I have contacted my Rechtsschutz insurance as I do not believe that this is legal. We did not provide a consent to being taped/listened to and we do not have a confirmation (albeit a strong suspicion) of who was on the other end.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? What are the options except what I am already doing?
I believe that would be a criminal offence, but you would have to have proof of what happened. Probably best would be additional witnesses.
That said, rapping on the knuckles would probably be a more satisfactory solution. Report the incident to whoever administers the group. Maybe talk directly yourself to the person concerned and see what they have to say. If that leads to nothing, you can always try calling an extraordinary general meeting of the group and have the person concerned excluded, but before doing things like that, make sure you've read the statutes carefully to see what you can and can't do.
Recording is a criminal offence without prior permission. Difficult to prove. AFAIK, transmitting may only be against the institutions statutes. Most rules were drawn up before the days of cell phones.
Most Swiss rules are made generic, w/o any particular technology in mind. Explicitly, Art. 179bis Swiss Criminal Code (unofficial translation) reads:
As we can see the listing party and, as far as I understand, the transmitting party (makes such information known to a third party) can be prosecuted.
If you do not know for sure who the listening party was, simple make a compliant against “Unknown”.
I think prosecutors have requested phone logs from telecom companies for lesser offences.
Sorry, can't read anything about the transmitting party. As for the listening party it depends on the definition of private and whether or not the listener has a right to hear that "private" conversation.
thanks, my insurance confirmed I have a case and 2 options
1. via civil law (Art 179 StGB), as already mentioned by you, I can go to the police to make formal complaint and it will be taken up by the DA, no costs involved from my side as there are multiple witnesses
2. private law (Datenschutzgesetz) which was tighnened this September, here all I can do though is write a registered letter with a warning. nothing more can be done in that case
one can combine both actions. still deciding what to do though as the person involved is highly aggressive.
It is unfortunately not possible to exclude this person from further meetings, I also asked about this.