I’am currently reading Rebecca Sanders Dissertation about „Exceptional Security Practices, Human Rights Abuses, and the Politics of Legal Legitimation in the American “Global War on Terror” “ for my own project. She sheds a bright light on laws concerning surveillance and other exceptional security measures like human rights abuses in Guantanamo bay and many more. […]
Why raising politicians wages is a bad idea…if you do it like this
Today it became public, that the newly elected grand coalition, consisting of christian democrats and social democrats, intends to increase the salary of parliamentarians from currently 8252€ to 9082€ (before taxes). They argue, that this was planned since 1995 were a law was passed that intended to match a politicians wage with that of other […]
Obama then and now – change we can believe in
Today, US president Obama will declare that nothing is wrong with the total surveillance system that has grown like a tumor in the once freedom and privacy loving grove of democracy the founding fathers envisioned. The surveillance system has indeed grown and a militaristic logic now is dominant within the US discourse on terror prevention […]
Why it is not „just“ metadata
As you might know, the beloved EU data retention directive requires Internet-Service-Provider to save communication metadata. In Germany, the product of this directive is called „Vorratsdatenspeicherung“. Surveillance-enthusiasts argue, that metadata does not violate any privacy rights because it does not save the content of communication and is therefore harmless. Metadata means that for meta-information of each […]
Connecting the dots, January
The Guardian writes, that the NSA is supposedly spying on members of the US congress. This is rather odd because they repeatedly denied (even in front of the very congress), to spy on US citizens. The only viable conclusion therefore is, that the NSA does not perceive the US congress as citizens, ergo validating the […]
For those who have nothing to hide…
While there is an outcry amongst the media, academia and netizens in general, the mere mortal citizen argues, that PRISM, Tempora and other surveillance tools are not a concern. There is a dangerous attitude at work, a mix of „i have nothing to hide“ and „they [secret services] will not do any harm“. Recent data […]
German Press review June part 2
The German conservative/liberal government refuse to take action against corruption and bribery. The very same coalition, that gave huge bonuses for the Hotel lobby as the very first act being in office. This is in direct violation of the UN-initiative against corruption, that was signed recently. Furthermore due to an initiative of the same conservative/liberal […]
press review June 13
It happens to me quite often, that my daily newspaper reading is quite depressing. It seems to be the common motive of press news, that they are almost always negative. Sure, catastrophes sell and dramatic news and big stories generate more income, I know, I know. However, I’m looking forward to the day when the […]
Data retention strikes back…
Today it became public, that the data retention is not just a matter in Europe but also in the US. In the name of counterterrorism (of course!), the NSA collected data from Verizon about their customers phone connections. While covert data retention is quite big (think privacy and civil liberties), at least it was based […]
Facebook, Vogons, autocratic regimes and the loss of democracy
Today Facebook announced that it will shut down Facebook Governance. Facebook what? Yeah, exactly. The idea behind Facebook Governance was democratic participation and dynamic user feedback about policy changes, privacy and so forth. You might be aware that Facebook acts more or less like a data-kraken and the governance idea was to bring a bit […]