German Minister of the Interior: no privacy limits for online surveillance (02/09/07 14:15 pm)
In an interview done by the German Daily News the German Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble expressed his opinion about the governmental usage of trojan programs for online surveillance. Recently, the German ministry of the interior tried to introduce the usage of trojan horses which should infect computers, collect as many information as possible, and transmit back the gathered data. The BGH (German Federal Court of Justice) declared this kind of secret spying of computers as illegal, however.
By Mr. Schäuble's point of view, this kind of surveillance is necessary since "terrorists always have to use the internet" and this method would provide a better way of collecting information about them compared to house searching. Although the minister admits during the interview he "barely knows" what a trojan is he strongly supports the idea of using these programs against German citizens. Also, Schäuble is not afraid of trojans because he "never opens unknown email attachments" and he thinks of himself as a "decent man" thus "the BKA (German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation) does not need to send him any trojans". The BGH's decision will not prevent the usage of trojans because it "did not say this method isn't allowed at all" according to Schäuble. Instead, it "demanded a legal basis and we will create one".
When being asked about the accusation the government is gathering data of all inhabitants with the help of the collection data storage directive the minister points out there has to be a balance between freedom and security. In his response to the question whether he understands if people are concerned because security institutions gain more and more authority he claims that "most people are more concerned of terrorism and crime, not of protection measures by the police. They want the government to guarantee their safety. For doing so, the government has to use new technologies".
Regarding the protection of the core areas of privacy which was demanded by the Bundesverfassungsgericht (German Federal Constitutional Court) Schäuble believes "terrorists are clever enough to abuse this and disguise their information in diary entries for example". So there cannot be any limits by areas of privacy. He announced an assay whether a change of the constitution is required for the usage of 'federal trojans'.
Comment:
The fact that surveillance should not be limited by any areas of privacy is very concerning. The views and plans of the minister are shocking as well as ashaming. Especially the Germans should have learned from history and should know best what may happen when the government tries to deepen the constiution and observes its peoples in detail. However, according to an opinion poll it appears as if the majority did not. On the contrary, 10.000 citizens registered so far for the class-action lawsuit aganst the connection data storage and 2500 sent in their authorizations to be represented at court. Western Germany used to be very proud of being a free country but whole Germany may just step back in history once more if its politicians continue this development and may beat any surveillance method used in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic) or in the Third Reich. Will this be the basis for future "preemptive" arrests before someone executed his deed? This certainly would remind of the Mind Police of "1984". And will telescreens be the next step in development? Or may this not be necessary because politicians already discussed the secret use of home webcams by trojans?
In the next few weeks, anti1984.com will inform you with more security guides about what you can do to protect your privacy when being connected to the internet.