Bodycams – FDPIC prohibits BLT Baselland Transport AG from processing data
In a decision dated 29 September 2026, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) concluded its investigation into Baselland Transport AG (BLT) regarding the use of bodycams.
Following media reports on the use of bodycams by Baselland Transport AG (BLT), the FDPIC opened an investigation against this transport company on 26 February 2026 pursuant to Art. 49 et seq. of the Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP). The FDPIC notes that BLT – in addition to the existing surveillance by fixed video cameras – uses bodycams to record moving images and voices of passengers and train crew. However, in view of the Federal Supreme Court’s requirements regarding the level and density of relevant authorising provisions, the use of bodycams cannot be based on either the Passenger Transport Act (Personenbeförderungsgesetz, PBG) ,the corresponding implementing ordinance or any other federal legislation. The processing of personal data resulting from the use of bodycams therefore contravenes the principle of lawfulness within the meaning of the FADP. Consequently, the FDPIC has ordered the BLT to cease the relevant processing of personal data and to delete all personal data obtained and further processed by means of bodycams.
The FDPIC acknowledges the interest asserted by the BLT in protecting passengers, staff and its own infrastructure. However, in order to safeguard this interest, transport operators must not interfere with the fundamental rights and personal rights of the millions of passengers and train crew affected on a daily basis by introducing arbitrary new additional measures. The fundamental balancing of the benefits of new additional measures for monitoring public transport against the associated serious infringements of fundamental rights is the responsibility of the legislature and the regulatory authorities and must therefore not be left to the transport companies.
If each of the more than 130 transport companies holding a federal licence were able to regulate the use of new additional measures as they saw fit, this would lead to a non-transparent patchwork of regulations and surveillance practices, which would be detrimental to legal certainty and would undermine passengers’ right to informational self-determination. Consequently, the Commissioner welcomes the Federal Council’s ongoing work on a temporary regulation governing new technical surveillance capabilities in public transport. The authorisation of such surveillance capabilities and the regulation of their legal limits should initially be time-limited within the framework of an amendment to the ordinance, which – as provided for in Article 35 of the FADP – must result in the legislature clarifying the authorisation provision in the Public Transport Act within five years.