Skybird |
07-21-13 05:04 AM |
I am neither surprised nor shocked. Didn't I say repeatedly that the german government knows about all this, and that foreign intel services of thew Allies are given special rights in Germany due to post WWII laws? Prism and Tempora in the end are just the next stage of programs like Echelon which have overheard telephone communication in all Europe, North Africa and far into the Warsaw Pact already during the cold war. Echelon was said to automatically record almost all telephone communication, radio communication, and probably communication that went via satellites. Internet was not a focus back then, obviously.
And yes, the BND strongly cooperates with the NSA.
We celebrate the holy mass of elections again over here in 2 months, thats why they make a big show of these "revelations".
For all communication people consider to be sensitive or risky for the sender or receiver, I can only recommend: stay away from electronic stuff, completely. Even if you encrypt your mails, you draw attention to yourself because most email traffic today is not encrypted. And if you think it cannot be decrypted if only you pout some effort and technical power behind it, then you better think again. Using the anonymity of public spaces and cryptic language also doe snot fully protect you, since it gets recorded nevertheless and their filters will sort it out and at least tell them that at least something is going on. All automatically, by AI algorithms, pattern recognition and other software. If you think that human personnel and the limited numbers of staff are a factor, you again better think twice.
What is recorded gets stored, forever, and even if it is not used against you today, you do not know what laws the futures brings. The treasure chest of recporded data is there. One day I might be used against you. By tax authorities. By lawyers or the press. Insurers. Police. Employers. They all have appetite for these data. They all have lobbyists working for them. And the politicians remain to stay as corrupt and powerhungry as ever.
Its like the female actress who is successful in films in her 40s, and then has her image haunted by that early teenage sin movie she shot for a porn company when she was young and unknown and needed the money. That sin never was forgotten, but only slept. Today's data society never forgets nothing.
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