First report: Important developments and substantive issues, March-July 2016 2016, para. 33
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Germany has, for decades, provided an excellent example in pioneering privacy protection in some areas. In April 2016, the Constitutional Court of Germany kept true to this tradition when it ruled that parts of a law ("BKA-Gesetz") granting surveillance powers to federal police were unconstitutional because they did not have sufficient safeguards to ensure a balance between the rights of the individual to privacy and the interests of the State in investigating potential crime. Certain powers, such as the ability to conduct surveillance through recorded conversations or photographs, to carry out wiretaps or to remotely search computers, did not have adequate restrictions, including the possibility of judicial review, to guarantee that intrusions on the privacy of German citizens would be justified and proportionate, the court found.