German Intelligence Can No Longer Freely Spy on the World's Internet Traffic, Top Court Rules (fortune.com) 50
In the world of online spying, great power lies with those who can get their hands on the data flowing through the world's Internet infrastructure. So the fact that Germany is home to one of the world's biggest Internet exchange points -- where data crosses between the networks that make up the Internet -- has given a lot of power to the country's equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency. From a report: The Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND, gets to freely sift through all the foreign traffic passing through that exchange junction in search of nuggets that can be shared with overseas partners such as the NSA. But now, that power is in jeopardy, thanks to a Tuesday ruling from Germany's constitutional court. The case was brought about by journalists who report on human rights in conflict zones, and don't want German spies potentially identifying their sources there and sharing that information with other countries.
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court ruled that foreigners also benefit from privacy protections under Germany's constitution, so the surveillance conducted on them by Germany's spy agency needs to respect their rights. The legislation in question, which was introduced in 2016, does nothing of the sort. Indeed, those rules trample over foreigners' rights in a variety of ways, the court said: they allow mass surveillance rather than targeted surveillance; there's not enough oversight of the spying; there are no protections for journalists and lawyers, as there should be; and there aren't enough restrictions or safeguards when it comes to sharing the information with the likes of the NSA.
Germany's Federal Constitutional Court ruled that foreigners also benefit from privacy protections under Germany's constitution, so the surveillance conducted on them by Germany's spy agency needs to respect their rights. The legislation in question, which was introduced in 2016, does nothing of the sort. Indeed, those rules trample over foreigners' rights in a variety of ways, the court said: they allow mass surveillance rather than targeted surveillance; there's not enough oversight of the spying; there are no protections for journalists and lawyers, as there should be; and there aren't enough restrictions or safeguards when it comes to sharing the information with the likes of the NSA.
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Sure it is, so long as the keepers of the law aren't breaking the law in order to maintain the law.
Yes, I'm Godwinning this thread already (Score:5, Insightful)
Look, espionage and intelligence gathering is a critical service towards national defense.
I would say the Germans know better than anyone how quickly "national defense" can be turned against those it is nominally meant to defend, and the disastrous results that can follow. Privacy protections for citizens and journalists are incredibly important.
The Nazis didn't use national defense to win (Score:2)
The best way to stop oppression is to guarantee everyone food, shelter & medicine so they're never so desperate they'll turn to the guy that makes the trains run on time.
Re: The Nazis didn't use national defense to win (Score:5, Insightful)
No. They didn't do it to win election. But they did put in place government systems to identify, track, harass, oppress, round up, and eventually murder millions of Jews, Roma, Communists, artists, intellectuals, journalists, and more. And after the Nazis the East German Stasi continued to monitor, harass, and round up intellectuals, journalists, artists, people who weren't die hard Communists, and others. They don't want to happen again, and I don't blame them.
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Privacy protections for citizens and journalists are incredibly important.
Absolutely, and it is excellent that this court has recognized what the United States has done in this regard is atrocious and reprehensible. Spying on your own people using the justification the target is their foreign compatriot is with complete disregard for the constitutional rights of both the citizens of the United States and all people.
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You might be a bit paranoid. It's perfectly find to post gmx.com. You can post gmx.com all you want, and it won't get taken down.
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There is another thing worth talking about: Lowend-Servers.
While tradional (IaaS) technologies allow for backdoor data gathering by goverment agencies (for a Webserver you just ssh into the box operating fully outside of a lousy customers view and gather all relevant files) a truelly phyiscal hardware (HaaS) can only be taken down and searched offline in most cases. This is partially also true for Operating System as a Service (OSaaP).
This means even when there is a search warranty the state attorney can no
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At no point the court ruled that espionage and intelligence gathering was forbidden. It strengthened the lawmakers to set the rules and exercise oversight over what the German Secret Service (BND) can do, and what it has to report to the Control Commission.
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The BND has been exploiting a bulk interception loophole for many years - the original provisions allowed them to splice into analog phone line and listen in to some small percentage of the communication, I think it was around 5%. This has been periodically carried forward through the courts by redefining what a wire is - from a single analog telephone line, to a massive bundle of fibre optic cables leaving the country. The point is that they're not supposed to snoop on domestic data, but this obviously goe
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Excellent. I assume you support NSA domestic spying and will be installing a tracking app on your phone ASAP?
Ich bin traurig (Score:2)
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Alles klar, Herr Kommissar? [youtube.com]
The singer Falco is from Austria, not Germany.
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And who gets punished? (Score:3)
Nobody? Figures. The worst criminals can not only walk away from it, they even get a grace period to continue doing their crimes. Despicable.
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Your child disappears (Score:1, Flamebait)
Three days later a covert national agency of your country is asked it if can help. If the cell/network providers and governments are all restricted by law from collecting metadata for well-meaning privacy protection purposes, then there isn't going to be anything this agency can do. You can't wish after-the-fact that you could find what happened to your child's cell phone or the phones of nearby persons if no one is allowed to have the data in the first place.
It makes much more sense to consider data t
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Your freedom disappears. Then in protest, you're caught on a cell phone video that is never uploaded or released to the public, nor ever sent to anyone, but it is data and that data exists on the phone connected to the network, so it becomes visible to those who took said freedom. Then you are swept up and three days later, depsite the data of your phone, and those around you being available, you are not found. You are gone. Wishing you had a time machine. Wishing that you had realized it was easier to prot
Re:Your child disappears (Score:5, Insightful)
Three days later a covert national agency of your country is asked it if can help.
Let's put your scenario through the filter of unrestrained mass surveillance, and see how it ends in the real world:
Three days later a covert national agency of your country is asked it if can help. Since you're not rich, famous, or politically connected, your case file is carelessly tossed on top of the six-foot tall pile of cases the covert agency doesn't give a shit about, and you get used to living your life in the vein day-to-day hope that random chance leads your child back home.
Meanwhile, some politician is using the covert national agency's access to the mass surveillance data to to dig up dirt on political opponents. As it happens, your Facebook page gets flagged as being sympathetic to that political opponent, and your entire online life gets put under that covert national agency's microscope.
And now that thing you used to do (that thing that we all probably do) five years ago, that used to be considered innocuously harmless, or that you stopped doing a long time ago because you realized it was probably hurtful, is politically incorrect and borderline illegal. But now the covert national agency has a treasure trove of evidence to use against you if you ever become a little too annoying to whomever controls the people who control access to that data.
No thanks. I'll take my chances on the infinitesimally, vanishingly small, odds that all the mass surveillance data might help me somehow, some day. There's a way, Way, WAY higher chance that the data will be used against me (and you) than be used to help me (or you).
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Think of the children, really?
How did they solve kidnappings before metadata existed?
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Three days later a covert national agency of your country is asked it if can help.
Unless you happen to be a major political figure, why would a national clandestine intelligence agency bother looking for a missing kid? That's the purview of your local law enforcement agency or, if there is an indication that child has been moved internationally, your national/federal law enforcement arm.
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Well look at that, now fear and emotions got us into the problem you were trying to solve. How about instead of trying to scare people into siding with you, you use logic and reason?
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Think of the children arguments are getting downright surreal.
What's next? (Score:2)
Revoking the license to kill?
bad breath (Score:1)
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This confusion will soon pass... [comedy-lounge.com]
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Du nix Godwin invoken!
Godwin vokt Dich in!
. . . in der Sowjetischebesatzungszone . . .
Ahh German... (Score:1)
The language of love...
of phlegm.
because ... (Score:2)
court rulings are ALWAYS followed by military and secret service organizations. Basically the new message is 'IF you are going to spy on the world DON'T be so transparent about it' now it must be a classified black op.
So human rights apply to all humans? (Score:3)
Obligatory (Score:1)
German Internet Surveillance Is Dead...Long Live German Internet Surveillance!