German Government Drops Verizon Contract Over NSA Spying, But Still Won't Investigate
from the actions-speak-louder-than-political-investigations dept
The German government is ending its contract with Verizon over the quite plausible and reasonable fears that Verizon has been helping the NSA spy on the German government."There are indications that Verizon is legally required to provide certain things to the NSA, and that's one of the reasons the cooperation with Verizon won't continue," said [Interior Ministry spokesman Tobias] Plate.Of course, this is the same German government that has basically blocked any real investigation from happening into the NSA's surveillance of the German people (perhaps because the Germans are complicit in those activities).
Still, this is yet another example of the NSA's activities hurting US business around the globe. But, rather than recognize it's a problem, the NSA and its defenders will keep blaming Ed Snowden.
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Filed Under: contracts, germany, nsa, surveillance
Companies: verizon
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The true humor is this!
Everyone just seems to forget, its not just the NSA, it is every allied nation with the USA that is enjoying this massive dragnet and they are definitely sharing. Right now it will be just the US businesses getting hurt.
War is coming, humans absolutely just cannot resist it, especially when governments are drumming up the shit they are these days!
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Re: The true humor is this!
Great. He messes up the only thing our governments have been consistently good at recycling.
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Re:
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Things that are Snowden's fault
Terrorist successes
Global warming
Kim Kardas...no, ALL the Kardashians
Heartbleed
Truecrypt mess
Target point-of-sale hack
More terrorist successes
Bitey soccer players
Bee colony collapse
New Jersey bridge lane closings
Lost IRS email messages
Still more terrorist successes
Nicki Minaj
ISIS military campaign
DRM in the W3C
Shaka, when the walls fell
ED-DRBG backdoor
Instant replay in MLB
Yet more terrorist successes
Mike Rogers' bulging forehead veins
Ukraine separatist movement
Transformers XIV
Kardas...oh, wait, I already listed that one. Never mind.
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Re: Things that are Snowden's fault
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Again?
The German government cancelled its Expedia contract over that one, but didn't post any one-star "would not use this travel agent again" reviews.
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https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/06/17/germany-nsas-largest-listening-post-europe/
I applaud Germany for kicking Verizon to the curb. There's no doubt Verizon would spy on the German people, just like they spy on the American people. Verizon is legally bound by US law to hand over all information, in secret, that is requested of them by the US Government.
The same is true of all US companies. Failure to secretly comply with National Security Letters will end in lengthy prison sentences and fines for any US company who refuses to comply with secret US law.
It doesn't matter were a US company stores that data. If their data is stored on servers in Europe, Asia, or South America. That data must be retrieved from those servers and handed over to the secret US judicial system upon request.
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Re:
You got that wrong. It is absolutly ok to spy on the German people. Otherwise the german Gov wouldn't say that if they took any legal actions or did anything at all against it, it hurt the us-german relationship. The german counterpart to the NSA even intercepted the raw traffic on the biggest internet exchange point and sent it to the NSA until 2007 when they suddenly realized that this might be hard to explain politicly.
Why they acted in this case is kind of simple and depressing. The goverment used Verizon in some departments and that's why it got canceled. One thing is why didn't they use a german provider or canceld it after the story was released? In my opinion, either they didnt care until the public knew or what is really scary they didnt know they had a contract with Verizon. And second thing that really bothers me is if as they say the whole Snowden stuff is just imagination and there is nothing to it then why cancel it? One would think that now, after they politicly shot themselves in the leg, was the time to say "oh alright, it is all true".
Politicians in germany atm.... If it wasn't real it would be so funny.
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Re: Re:
Ah ha! I understand what you're saying. The German government itself was using Verizon's network to handle government communications.
Now I see why the German government is so concerned about Verizon. They're afraid that government officials are being spied on directly though Verizon.
Now it all makes sense! This could also explain how the NSA was able to listen in on Angela Merkel's phone calls.
All the pieces are starting to fall into place.
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Finally...
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Chink in the armor
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bedfellows
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But, of course
But of course it is all Snowden's fault! If he hadn't shined the light on the National Spy Agency's hidden dirty laundry, the public would not know about any of this and the spying could carry on as usual
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