And so the international fallout from the revelations around the NSA’s wide-ranging PRISM surveillance program begins to appear. We’ve already had a spokesperson for the European Commission try to claim it’s a U.S.-only matter (it really isn’t), but now others in the EU are starting to weigh in with their concerns.
If you’re just catching up with this news now, the gist is that the U.S. National Security Agency apparently has a direct line into the systems of globally-used U.S. web platforms including Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, Skype and AOL. The companies themselves have denied such backdoors exist, but the U.S. administration has effectively confirmed that they do.
Peter Schaar, Germany’s federal commissioner for data protection, sent me this statement a few minutes ago:
“The U.S. administration must now provide clarification. [The] first statements from the U.S. government [suggesting that] the surveillance would not be directed against U.S. citizens, but only against persons who reside outside the United States, [do] not reassure me at all.
“Given the large number of German users of Google, Facebook, Apple or Microsoft services, I expect the German government… is committed to clarification and limitation of surveillance. In addition, the reports illustrate the importance of strengthening the European data protection law. The dilatory attitude of the EU Interior and Justice Ministers towards the Privacy Policy reform package is a completely wrong signal.”
This response is as expected — read my take from earlier today on the implications for the EU data protection debate here.
Meanwhile, the British Open Rights Group (ORG) has suggested there may be implications here for the UK government, too:
“These allegations are profoundly serious, for the UK government as well as USA. Did our government know about this? What will they do to prevent the USA or others from invading British citizens’ privacy in the future?”
This is just beginning. Expect more in the same vein soon — this story will be updated.
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