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Germany Wants A German Internet To Keep The NSA Out
As the 'diplomatic' debacle continues to rage between the US and Europe (most loudly France and Germany) over the Obama administration's ongoing eavesdropping on its allies' cell phones, Reuters reports that (state-backed) Deutsche Telekom is calling for German comms companies to cooperate to shield local internet traffic from foreign intelligence services. "It is internationally without precedent that the internet traffic of a developed country bypasses the servers of another country," notes one academic, warning that if more countries wall themselves off, it could lead to a troubling "Balkanisation" of the Internet, crippling the openness and efficiency that have made the web a source of economic growth. Despite Obama's denials, the situation is not fading away, and Germany and France continue to demand a "no spying" agreement.
As a diplomatic row rages between the United States and Europe over spying accusations, state-backed Deutsche Telekom wants German communications companies to cooperate to shield local internet traffic from foreign intelligence services.
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More fundamentally, the initiative runs counter to how the Internet works today - global traffic is passed from network to network under free or paid-for agreements with no thought for national borders.
If more countries wall themselves off, it could lead to a troubling "Balkanisation" of the Internet, crippling the openness and efficiency that have made the web a source of economic growth, said Dan Kaminsky, a U.S. security researcher.
Controls over internet traffic are more commonly seen in countries such as China and Iran where governments seek to limit the content their people can access by erecting firewalls and blocking Facebook and Twitter.
"It is internationally without precedent that the internet traffic of a developed country bypasses the servers of another country," said Torsten Gerpott, a professor of business and telecoms at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
"The push of Deutsche Telekom is laudable, but it's also a public relations move."
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Government snooping is a sensitive subject in Germany, which has among the strictest privacy laws in the world, since it dredges up memories of eavesdropping by the Stasi secret police in the former East Germany, where Merkel grew up.
The issue dominated discussions at a European summit on Thursday, prompting Merkel to demand that the U.S. strike a "no-spying" agreement with Berlin and Paris by the end of the year.
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Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, angered by reports that the U.S. spied on her and other Brazilians, is pushing legislation that would force Google, Facebook and other internet companies to store locally gathered or user-generated data inside the country.
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"Just think of how stupid the average person is and then realze that half of them are stupider than that."
"The concensus reality is often intentionally misleading." George Carlin
"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." A ficitious entity in a shared hallicination, one of many manufactured by real people to intentionally lead the 80%.
Getting spied on from the NSA and Telekom? No I don't think I want that. And it's clear what they mean. They want to get paid for it as "secure" provider. I guess a new tax for "antispy activities" is quite a new thing. Oh gosh - I should not make such suggestions they may come true....
Wow, what a turn of events. It seems like just yesterday when the Germans were treating that piece of shit like a rock star.
I had just signed up for an lavabit account before the US forced them to shut down, I'm now hoping to get in on startmail's public beta testing.
But you would think there would be a greater push for secure consumer email and live chat services with all these spying scandals going on.
Same with mobile phones, I see no reason we couldn't have point A to B encryption and decryption that has nothing to do with the service provider.
everyone's forgetting the bigger picture.
why the nsa leaks now? why the specific drop of the merkel tap, when this has been known for months already, right before a big EU summit? look at that agenda.
and then consider this happenning in the background:
The European Union – United States Free Trade Agreement is a proposed free trade agreementbetween the European Union and United States. It represents potentially the largest regional free-trade agreement in history, covering 46% of world GDP.[1]
On February 12, 2013, President Barack Obama called in his annual State of the Union address for such an agreement.[2] The following day, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barrosoannounced that talks would take place to negotiate the agreement.[3][4]
This free trade agreement may be finalized by the end of 2014.[5][6]
It can legitimately be argued that Snowden revealed nothing really specific or actionable, or really that politically important - and the MSM trumpeted his name and so on all over the place - it was bigger than Ben Hur. Now, why would they do that if it were not somehow in the interests of the banksters who control them?
It seems almost certain that the ruckus over Snowden is purely to allow govts to 'solve' the problem of privacy from the NSA - problem, reaction, solution. While the threat of infiltration by the NSA is real, I am also reasonably confident that the threat has been overstated - it is hyperbole.
I always considered Snowden as probably a CIA plant, now I am almost certain of it.
Lets not get played by these fkrs - the free market knows people want privacy, and individuals will have options to protect their privacy, available courtesy of the free market. Don't let the govts get involved in 'protecting' peoples privacy, thats handing the fox the keys to the chicken coop.
don't forget this great aurora ex machina post. i sure do miss that chap's presence on the zh boards ;-)
"Controls over internet traffic are more commonly seen in countries such as China and Iran [...]" I believe that this author forgot somebody that is doing this in a more complete way: US of fucking A.
Why the fuck does US people like to think about America as the beacon of democracy, even after such revelations like foreign government toppling, war starting, terrorism using, state organized mass spying, dronning, waterboarding, torture, kidnapping and the whole range of other illegal things you would call a country undemocratic for?