The Federal court of Justice (BGH) has ruled that the government must bring US whistleblower Edward Snowden to Berlin to answer parliamentary questions on the NSA, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The Local.de: High court: Snowden must come to Berlin »
Prosecutors in the Bavarian capital are conducting an investigation into Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other heads of the social media giant over potentially illegal posts on their website, Spiegel reported on Friday.
The Local.de: Facebook’s Zuckerberg being investigated in Germany »
German Bundestag and Bundesrat have approved new rules for mass surveillance, at record speed.
In essence, what was illegal but done anyway now is legal.
This follows the uncovering of BND mass surveillance on a huge scale. Now this control of cross-border and national telecommunications can continue as if nothing has happened.
Eilverfahren: Bundesrat winkt BND-Netzüberwachung im NSA-Stil durch »
/ HAX
The world’s largest internet exchange point is suing the German government for tapping its communications systems.
DE-CIX runs a number of critical exchange points – most of them in Germany, but with others in France, Spain and the United States – and has sued the German interior ministry over orders from the German security services to allow them to tap its exchange centers.
The goal of the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Leipzig, is to reach a “judicial clarification” over whether the German government’s actions are legal, the company said (in German), and “in particular, legal certainty for our customers and our company.”
The Register: World’s largest internet exchange sues Germany over mass surveillance»
In a world where terrorists deliberately encrypt their connections, how big is the chance that a terrorist would (continue to) use a service that is known to be insecure? Our guess: as soon as the European Commission introduces legislation forcing services such as Telegram to decrypt secure communications, terrorists will turn to alternative tools. (…)
The idea that the way to gain access to terrorists’ communications is by backdooring services such as Telegram, is preposterous. Let’s be clear, the French and German proposal will undermine the security of every single person, under the populist guise of improving security. Or, in the words of cryptographer Phil Zimmerman: When crypto is outlawed, only outlaws will have crypto.
EDRi: When crypto is outlawed, only outlaws will have crypto »
The German Intelligence Service BND illegally collected and stored mass surveillance data and has to delete those data immediately, including XKeyscore. This is one of the results of a classified report of the German Federal Data Protection Commissioner that we are hereby publishing. In her report, she criticizes serious legal violations and a massive restriction of her supervision authority.
Netzpolitik: Secret Report: German Federal Intelligence Service BND Violates Laws And Constitution By The Dozen »
Ars Technica: German spies repeatedly broke law, must delete XKeyscore database—watchdog »
The unpleasant practice of sending extortion letters to file sharers / downloaders seems to be spreading. The latest example is Sweden. And it all seems to be loosely built on the German model.
Here are few links describing what’s going on in Germany:
• File Sharing infringements in Germany »
• Germany offers frightening glimpse at copyright trumping privacy »
• Your Digital Rights in Germany »
• Advice on the copyright infringement warning letter from Fareds »
EDRi: France and Germany: Fighting terrorism by weakening encryption »
Fortune: Why France and Germany’s Encryption Stance May Be More Bark Than Bite »
In a new level of dumb, Germany and France are demanding strong encryption for all citizens at the same time as they demand this strong encryption to be breakable. They also demand messaging providers of end-to-end encryption to provide police with keys they don’t have, and for terrorists to stop using freely available strong encryption without a messaging provider. You really couldn’t sound dumber if you tried.
Ars Technica: Germany eyes facial recognition tech for airports, train stations »
