'A violation of fundamental rights' – Civil society calls on Switzerland to abandon data retention proposals

• 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.