Read everything

The AfD can laugh up its sleeve. It is not only through policies that run counter to the interests of the people – huge mountains of debt, new conscription, rearmament and cuts in social benefits – that the federal government is giving joy to the enemies of the democratic constitutional state. Now the powers of the German secret services are also to be "strengthened." According to according to a draft law, not only will metadata—i.e., who communicates with whom and when—be stored, but the content of communications will also be stored and evaluated for up to six months. The AfD can only rejoice at such a gift on the occasion of its expected election victories.

According to the draft, the main focus is on the DE-CIX node in Frankfurt and its monitoring by the BND. This node is the largest hub for data traffic in the EU. But since almost every data packet goes through the Big5 (GAFAM) in the US, it is also stored there. As a precaution, the draft also states that not only data traffic "from abroad and to abroad", but also Internet traffic "from Germany to abroad" may be monitored in the future. This then includes practically all communication via any messenger such as WhatsApp, etc. In "individual cases," intervention — i.e., hacking and altering content—should also be possible.

This draft law is not even comparable to the unconstitutional plans for data retention from 2007 — which only involved the storage of metadata — but goes far beyond that with its total surveillance of all our communications. Of course, the secret services also need huge server farms for this, which not only waste a lot of energy but also have to be operated secretly and securely.

The draft does not contain a legal analysis comparing it to the unconstitutional data retention, but justifies the "necessity of surveillance" by saying that it is necessary to keep up with European partner services. The days of a “value-based democratic order” seem to be over; we are living in times where might makes right ...

Read more https://www.tagesschau.de/investigativ/ndr-wdr/bnd-gesetz-befugnisse-102.html

Comment

For further confidential communication, we recommend that you include a reference to a secure messenger, such as Session, Bitmessage, or similar, below the comment text. To prevent the use of this form by spam robots, please enter the portrayed character set in the left picture below into the right field.

CC License   Member in the European Civil Liberties Network   Bundesfreiwilligendienst   We don't store user data   World Beyond War   No use of JavaScript   For transparency in the civil society