Before Commissioning an Assignment: The Legitimate Interest

When you instruct our detective agency in Zurich to act on your behalf, we will ask you a series of questions in advance. The most important one is: Why should we obtain the requested information for you? According to Swiss legislation and the professional code of conduct governing the detective profession, it must be ensured that a legitimate interest exists, since personal investigations always represent an intrusion into the privacy rights of the subject. Two examples can help to illustrate what constitutes a legitimate interest:

Example No. 1

Someone owes you money (for example, from rent, loans, maintenance payments, sales, and so on) and has evaded payment by absconding. In this case, a legitimate interest exists that outweighs the privacy rights of the subject, as your financial interest in recovering your rightful property supersedes the subject’s data protection rights. Our Swiss investigators will take on your case.

Example No. 2

You wish to organise a school reunion but can no longer locate all your former classmates and therefore require address tracing. Or perhaps your married neighbour is receiving frequent visits from a woman unknown to you, and you would like to know whether he is being unfaithful to his wife. In such cases, no legitimate interest exists, as the privacy rights of the subjects outweigh your claims.

Investigations Without a Legitimate Interest

If our detectives were to act despite the absence of a legitimate interest, there would, on the one hand, be a risk that the investigative results would not be recognised in any potential court proceedings, and on the other hand, both you and we would be committing an offence, as personal rights are clearly regulated in Switzerland under Article 28 of the Civil Code. The subject could take legal action against you as well as against our agency and claim compensation.

In exceptional cases such as the aforementioned school reunion, we could determine the address despite the absence of a legitimate interest; however, we would be required to request the subject’s consent for the disclosure of their data. Should they refuse, we would not be permitted to provide you with the address. The resulting detective costs would nevertheless be invoiced to you.