Im Sommer macht unsere Kanzlerin Frau Merkel auf sich aufmerksam, indem sie (nach 2 Wochen des Schweigens) den damals aufkommenden Überwachungsskandal mit folgenden Worten herunterspielte: „Das Internet ist für uns alle Neuland“. Dieses Statement begründete nicht nur ein eigenes Twitter Hashtag, sondern steht, zumindest für mich, seitdem exemplarisch für das Internetverständnis der Deutschen. Ein Großteil der […]
connecting the dots: Vorratsdatenspeicherung
Good news first. Der EUGH hat die umstrittene Vorratsdatenspeicherung gekippt. Der ehemalige Bundesdatenschützer Schaar dazu: „In der Substanz bestätigt der EuGH die Kritiker der Vorratsdatenspeicherung: Die generelle, anlasslose Speicherung von Telekommunikationsdaten ist weder mit dem Grundrecht auf Achtung des Privatlebens noch mit dem Grundrecht auf Datenschutz vereinbar.“
connecting the dots: bad news for the Internet
In the recent days, several things happened, that seem to be really bad for the Internet.
Noteworthy talking points from Edward Snowden and Chris Soghoian @ SXSW
In case you haven’t seen yet, Edward Snowden gave a talk at one of the biggest tech-consumer shows, the SXSW. Folks like Googles Eric Schmidt tend to be present there and give keynotes (which he did). I just wanted to highlight some of the most interesting points they talked in their video-chat conversation. Edward Snowden […]
Review: Exceptional Security Practices, Human Rights Abuses, and the Politics of Legal Legitimation in the American “Global War on Terror”
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 […]