German court rules against foreign intelligence mass communication surveillance
It is a sensitive issue in Germany after the abuses by the Gestapo during the Nazi era and during the Cold WarGermany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) must not store the metadata – such as phone numbers – of international phone calls for the purpose of intelligence analysis, a court rules on Thursday. Surveillance is a sensitive issue in Germany after the abuses by the Gestapo during the Nazi era and the Stasi in Communist East Germany during the Cold War. Whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about the United States spying on Germany also caused upset. “The verdict shows that it pays off when human rights organizations defend themselves against the mass storage of data by the BND,” said Christian Mihr, the organization’s director in Berlin. Asked about the ruling, the BND said it would wait for the verdict’s legal justification to be evaluated.
Source: The Express Tribune December 15, 2017 08:48 UTC
