European commission backs Merkel's call for tougher data protection laws

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/15/european-commission-angela-merkel-data-protection

by k-mcgrady • 13 years ago

88 25 13 years ago

guardian.co.uk

sentenza• 13 years ago

Please take note: Merkel has behaved extremely apathetic considering that she is in the middle of a reelection campaign. This has multiple reasons, one of which is that her ideological compass indicates that "staunch support" for whatever the US does is always the right answer. For example, she always supported the Iraq invasion. Fortunately she wasn't the chancellor then.

What we see here is the absolute minimum she thinks she can get away with. However, since the criticism over here of her inactivity (and complicity) is only getting started, the situation might push her to go further than that.

Bjoern• 13 years ago

Seconded. I'm also completely flabbergasted that she still claims to have known nothing of it as well as other high ranking politicians, despite the known involvement of the BND.

chiph• 13 years ago

The BND (German intelligence agency) has made use of the NSA data. But so far, they're saying it was just for locating German citizens who had been kidnapped abroad.

gst• 13 years ago

Similar (official) reason to why data retention for cell phone location data exists in Austria: To locate mountaineers who got lost in the Alps.

cygx• 13 years ago

Well, us Germans like to joke that the Swiss are a bit on the slow side, so from them I'd buy keeping data around for 6 months for that reason.

But what's your excuse ;)

1337biz• 13 years ago

Oh, so that's the new narrative for countries that don't buy into the terrorism scaremongering? Is this going to become the new cp? Must have taken quite a few focus groups to come up with that.

Once again it is arguing for a policy based on occurrences that happen most likely even rarer than cp or "terrorism" threats. Let's how far they are able to spread the kidnapping myths.

disputin2• 13 years ago

What do internet companies have to do with tapped cables?

PavlovsCat2• 13 years ago

They have to keep quiet about them, or security and prosperity for all of us are at stake! Or so says the constant propaganda of the last decades.. (certainly since I can remember).

weinzierl• 13 years ago

Nothing. As a German I have the right to obtain a copy of all personal information that public authorities (§ 19 BDSG) or companies (§ 34 BDSG) store about me - for free. There are similar laws on the EU level.

The problem is that U.S. companies, even if they have their headquarter in Europe (like Facebook in Dublin) just don't care. You can read more about that on the Europe vs Facebook page. http://europe-v-facebook.org/

disputin2• 13 years ago

My point is that this is a red herring.

lazyjones• 13 years ago

At the same time, Germany's interior minister Friedrich visited the US allegedly to complain or inquire about the NSA spying, but in reality he discussed broader cooperation around PRISM and possibly more extensive access for the BND (in German: http://www.golem.de/news/bundesinnenminister-beim-us-besuch-...).

mtgx• 13 years ago

I don't know whether to upvote this or not. On one hand I want tougher data protection laws, on the other hand I'm pretty sure Merkel is just "pretending" to want this to win the election (much like Obama did).

PavlovsCat2• 13 years ago

I wouldn't trust her further than I would be able to throw her...

... confetti! It's very hard to throw confetti far, especially the kind that is not laced in any sort of contact poison, which is the only kind I would dream of using.

anigbrowl• 13 years ago

Who cares why she's doing it? You don't vote on motivations, you vote on positions because those are the only objective criteria you can hold (or attempt to hold) a politician to. Betting on motivation is a receipe for political weakness.

I supported Obama but I knew perfectly well that he was a security hawk because he said so. He stated perfectly clearly that we was willing to impinge on other countries' sovereignty in pursuit of his national security objectives and stuck to that position under criticism from other candidates. People that express surprise about his policy choices clearly didn't listen to what he was saying, but told themselves fairy stories about what he 'meant.'

loginalready• 13 years ago

Although Merkel is just being opportunistic, I'm optimistic that, like with ACTA, we are slowly seeing that the complete sell-out of European civil rights to US interests is no longer politically sustainable.

Whether they mean it or not, the fact that the staunchest supporters of the US feel the political need to speak out is significant in itself.

The US has gone a bridge to far by treating the citizens of a friendly nations as the enemy.

ovidiup• 13 years ago

Isn't her call addressing the wrong problem? She should be mad at the US government about the illegal wiretapping of Internet communication, instead of accusing and punishing US Internet companies for something they don't have a say into or cannot even talk about.

forgottenpaswrd• 13 years ago

Bureaucracy in action.

So now, EC wants American companies to tell them "what you do with the data", by law.

American law states the contrary "whatever we do is secret, you can't tell anybody, or we will send you a SWAT team to your house, and imprison you forever. Foreigners are adversaries, enemies...you are a patriot if you collaborate, a traitor if you don't, like Snowden"

Who is going to win? Obviously what happens in FB or Google headquarters is unknown to the bureaucrats, so they will continue, they are Americans after all.

mcv2• 13 years ago

I can see FB and Google splitting into a US-based main company and an EU-based subsidiary. EU users will be handled by the EU company and US users by the US company.

tjansen• 13 years ago

...and every time the US based company prepares a new version, we can wait a few months until all the paper work had been filled out and the EU has approved it. Go VPN...

toyg2• 13 years ago

All this European posturing is just that, posturing, but it's the worst of possible worlds for Obama: be it in a friendly or hostile manner, every European government can now ask for favours in order to turn a blind eye to the whole mess.

Most politicians will likely ask for increased data-sharing agreements under the table, while publicly decrying the sorry state of things. The EC can be a real threat for US businesses, which is why Merkel and friends needed this statement: it's the big stick to bring to the table while we speak softly to our American friends.

diminoten2• 13 years ago

You're falsely assuming Obama gives a crap about how the EU reacts to the Snowden leaks. The whole point of spycraft is that it happens clandestinely.

toyg2• 13 years ago

And the whole point of diplomacy is that it produces public trade agreements.

FellowTraveler• 13 years ago

What do you want to bet these data protection laws will do a better job of protecting authorities, than they will "protecting" users?

European commission backs Merkel's call for tougher data protection laws

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