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German Gov't Inadvertently Reveals Police Monitor Gmail, Skype, Facebook & Use Snooping Malware
from the did-we-really-tell-them-that? dept
Transparency is worth having for itself, since governments often tend to behave a little better when they know that someone is watching. But occasionally, requests for data turn up something big and totally unexpected because someone failed to notice quite what the information provided implies.
Here's a great example spotted by the annalist blog, which reports on a parliamentary enquiry about expenditures by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, responsible for internal security. What was probably thought to be no more than a few dozen pages of boring and thus safe figures turned out to reveal something quite shocking:
The German ministry for home affairs and thus the German police clearly state that they are monitoring Skype, Google Mail, MSN Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Facebook chat if deemed necessary. Money is spent on trojan viruses and we can be quite certain which company produces the IMSI catchers [used for "man-in-the-middle" attacks on mobile phones] used by German police.
It's been known for a year that the German police forces have been using malware to spy on citizens via their computers, but the latest revelations about surveillance activity go far beyond that. It confirms that even in countries where people are very sensitive about privacy, Internet snooping by the police is routine. It also emphasizes, once more, the importance of encrypting your communication channels where possible, and avoiding those where it isn't.
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Uhh… No.
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I think you wanted alt 0153 = ™
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is someone looking for attention?
This this post is a little exaggerated. The report just states to which private companies the "spying" is outsourced. The german gvt is forced by law to check wether it is cheaper to outsource certain services or to get the job done by an gvt-owned agency.
In fact the title of this post is more than missleading. It's no secret that "the gvt" is spying on ppl. But only when a judge allowed it. And this is the same in most countries (maybe not neccessary in the U.S. ;) ). Every single service you mentioned in you post title has eventually clearly stated that they cooperate with law enforcement agencies. if a judge orders that the spying on the person X is ok, the law enforcement agencies ask the service which they think is used by the suspect to do "bad things" to monitor him / get his data. Or, if it is encrypted or to complicated to get the data (e. g. facebook, skype) the intercept the transmission. and this interception is mostly done by private comapnies (Digitask for example)
the report is more or less about budgets and how much of the tax payers money was spend on what.
nothing in this report is "new" - it all has been revealed years ago.
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Re: is someone looking for attention?
It's not just stating financial data, it's showing that Germany spies on Internet services. A lot.
Seems enough for me to draw attention.
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Re: is someone looking for attention?
'It also emphasizes, once more, the importance of encrypting your communication channels where possible, and avoiding those where it isn't.'
My suggestion? Stop breaking the law. Then you have nothing to worry about. If you need encryption to feel secure from law enforcement, then you have a pretty guilty attitude.
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Your comment is without a doubt setting you on the side of the proponents of a total surveillance society. A totaliterian to the likes of the ex-communist countries...
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You always have means that you can avoid being monitored. OTR, TOR, PGP S/MIME etc.
So somehow its a good thing that you now that there is the chance that you beeing spyied on, so you don't rope in sand (? direct translation from the german saying) thinking "hey it's safe here, we can do what we want".
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Also, law! LAW!! Don't break the law! Law! /aj
In any case, when even the Government seem not interested in following the law why should we?
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If you aren't wary of law enforcement spying, then you are ignorant of even recent history.
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Fuck you, cunt. We don't bleed for you.
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You're wrong. They are reading and accessing everything that everyone is doing without the courts authority and without warrants. That should not be legal and on the letter of the laws, it actually is not legal. So if you want to be a pawn go ahead. Frankly I don't want to be a pawn or a prawn. I don't want the Government snooping in my house. It's not a question of what I have to hide, it's call privacy! That's all that needs to be said!
Did Americans forget their bill of rights?
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also the trojan horse / malware thing has been legal for some time, then skipped or limited by the federal constitutional court, than made legal again in a different law (for the "bka" = federal criminal agaency) under certain limitations. you always have to obey some kind of "inner circle or core area of private life" where they have to shut of the surveillance when you talk about this stuff (however it is no hard-coded what this core area is)
as a german citizen which is familiar with the whole matter, believe me, nothing of this is new ... if it was it would have drawn a lot of attention when the report was released
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If criminals use guns to commit crimes the police watch who buys guns. If criminals use electronic communications to commit crimes what exactly should they do????
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Using malware installed unknowingly on my system is the same as breaking and entering.
Since when do the ends justify the means?
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Don't think for a second
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Wake up, there is no problem other than the new kingdom that we have completely missed being built around us. What are there, maybe 5 corporations that run just about every facet of goods and services? Why does food increase in prices exponentially? Wages are at a standstill, hiring is frozen, equipment has replaced low paid workers, gas has gone up under the guise of fear. Yeah, actually, none of that has anything to do with food increasing in prices. I still pay the worms the same amount to fertilize the soil. I pay the sun the same to give warmth.
C'mon now, be a good dog and go to work, get locked into a single career path. Get more work loaded onto you, by far, compared to previous generation in your same line....but get paid unreasonably low based on inflation. Quit your bitching, and be a good dog. How else can the corporations attain record profits if they don't keep you in shackles of credit card debt, hangman's noose of taxes used to pay for the infirmed (who need it), the leeches who will never work a day and the upper level greed who will only be happy when they own everything.
Oh, wait, they are attaining record profits. Just don't rock the boat, if people found how...it could be bad for business.
So, yes, they'll be listening more and more. The worst thing that could happen is if we, the cows, realize that there's an opening in the fence..... we just may get out of this tainted field and get back to just being cows standing around eating grass and existing.
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