The story appears on

Page A2

June 17, 2013

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeWorld

Germany seeking to expand monitoring

GERMANY'S foreign intelligence service plans a major expansion of Internet surveillance despite deep unease over revelations of US online spying, Der Spiegel news weekly reported yesterday.

Spiegel said the BND planned a 100 million euro (US$130 million) program over the next five years to expand web monitoring with up to 100 new staff.

The report came ahead of a state visit to Berlin by US President Barack Obama during which the German government has pledged to take up the controversy over the US phone and Internet surveillance programs.

Spiegel said the BND aimed to monitor international data traffic "as closely as possible," noting it currently kept tabs on about 5 percent of e-mails, Internet calls and online chats while German law allowed up to 20 percent.

Unlike the US National Security Agency, Germany's BND is not allowed to store the data but must filter it immediately.

"Of course our intelligence services must have an Internet presence," Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told Der Spiegel.

The state must ensure "that we balance the loss of control over communication by criminals with new legal and technological means," he said.

Germany, where sensitivity over surveillance is particularly heightened due to widespread spying on citizens by the former East Germany's despised Stasi, said last week it was sending a list of questions to the Obama administration about its surveillance program.



 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend