Category Archives: NSA Spying

German citizens’ communication data reportedly passed to NSA

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From 2004 to 2008, raw data was siphoned from an internet exchange point in Frankfurt and forwarded to the NSA, the Sddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and regional public broadcasters NDR and WDR reported on Friday.

The reports cited secret government documents submitted to the ongoing parliamentary inquiry into NSA spying.

It was first reported in June that the BND was handing information collected in Frankfurt to the NSA, codenamed "Eikonal," but information on German citizens was said to have been filtered out.

According to the latest Bundestag documents, however, BND internal tests showed that at least 5 percent of the German citizens' communications data could not be filtered.

An "absolute and mistake-free" separation of German and foreign citizens' communications is not possible, the secret documents said.

Frankfurt's DE-CIX internet exchange point is the largest in the world. Data streams from various internet providers meet there to be passed onto their respective destinations.

dr/jm (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

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German citizens' communication data reportedly passed to NSA

ELECT ARTURO ALAS TO CONGRESS. HE IS AGAINST NSA SPYING AND IS PRO CONSTITUTION. – Video

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ELECT ARTURO ALAS TO CONGRESS. HE IS AGAINST NSA SPYING AND IS PRO CONSTITUTION.
Arturo Alas is against spying on innocent people and believes the government has gotten too big. The incumbent who he is challenging voted to fund Isis terro...

By: grindall61

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ELECT ARTURO ALAS TO CONGRESS. HE IS AGAINST NSA SPYING AND IS PRO CONSTITUTION. - Video

‘Normale Leute’ vs NSA spying: meet Germany’s ‘average’ data protesters

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It's a late Saturday afternoon in the German capital, Berlin, where the iconic Brandenburg Gate is abuzz.

On its eastern side, hundreds of spectators have turned out to watch a summer long-jump competition called Berlin Fliegt.

But on the western side, bordering the Tiergarten Park, about 6000 people have assembled to express their outrage over United States National Security Agency (NSA) spying.

Their anger is palpable

During speeches by politicians and activists, you hear a reoccurring theme: in the year since the spying allegations were revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Germans still do not know the full extent of their own government's cooperation with the NSA.

A small number of the protesters are expats, such as Isabel Cole of the group, American Voices Abroad.

"It's important for citizens not to be under mass surveillance," Cole told DW. "Because mass surveillance means you're treating citizens as suspects in a sweeping way."

Patrick Breyer, a Pirate Party member of the Schleswig-Holstein regional assembly, echoes Cole's sentiment.

From anonymous masks to the cult of Snowden: image is everything

"When we are under constant surveillance, we can't behave as freely as we would otherwise," Breyer said during the event. "Excessive surveillance threatens to deter political protest and activism and also harms the free press, because informants find it more difficult to inform the press when they are under surveillance, and can't rely on anonymity."

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'Normale Leute' vs NSA spying: meet Germany's 'average' data protesters