Ask a lawyer on the topic of Criminal law

Mobile phone controlled

December 11, 2017 | 30,00 EUR | answered by Bernhard Müller

Hello,

I suspect that someone has secretly read a WhatsApp chat on my mobile phone.

Is this considered a crime, and if so, what kind?

Bernhard Müller

Dear inquirer,

that depends.

If your mobile phone was somewhere and the perpetrator only had to look at it to be able to read it, it is not a criminal offense.

If he had to overcome a security measure, for example, to scout out and enter a PIN, it is a spying on data offense according to § 202a of the Criminal Code.

If the perpetrator used his own technical devices to intercept and evaluate the radio waves exchanged between your mobile phone and the chat partner's mobile phone, it constitutes interception of data according to § 202b of the Criminal Code.

Sincerely,

Bernhard Müller