Things can quickly get intimate with the federal government after the interview. Prospective officers and military personnel dealing with particularly sensitive or classified information are screened by the Department of Defense (VBS) through a security check. The VBS examiners don’t stop at sex life.
The federal government now wants to lay down in regulations that questions about privacy and sexuality can also be part of the security checks of civil servants and military personnel. This is reported by the “Tages-Anzeiger”. The cantons and other circles concerned had until Thursday to comment on the proposed changes.
matter of extortion
According to the “Tages-Anzeiger”, it is already common practice for the DDPS to scrutinize the sex life of federal and sometimes cantonal employees in certain cases. Now the practice must be legally substantiated.
But why are federal inspectors interested in the sex lives of officers and soldiers? The DDPS says it’s about recognizing possible blackmail. For example, if someone lives their sexual orientation secretly, compulsively or as an addiction. Or if someone accumulates debt through porn consumption or someone uses shadow accounts to finance visits to brothels.
Can the federal government do that at all?
The gay organization Pink Cross criticized the new arrangement. She fears that she is mainly targeting non-heterosexual people. In addition, Roman Heggli of Pink Cross told the “Tages-Anzeiger” that the federal government should spy on someone to find out if he is hiding a homosexual orientation.
The federal government also goes too far for certain cantons. The Thurgau government council has criticized the lack of a legal basis for data collection on privacy and sexuality. That the federal government can ask questions about family relationships, the identity of the parents and the circle of friends is also unacceptable.
Other sensitive issues
But there are also other criticisms. It is “not clear why the basic security check can specify that information about religious activities, ideological opinions and political and trade union activities can be comprehensively requested and processed,” writes the Canton of Thurgau. The Uri government also accuses the federal government of trying to collect more data than is legally allowed — particularly regarding issues of political or religious orientation.
But there are also numerous cantons that fully support the plans of Defense Minister Viola Amherd (60). According to her, the new regulation should come into effect by the middle of next year. (lha)