The story is repeated, with a different protagonist, and at the bottom of the NSA. The following news is about the German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) and all secret intelligence services.
Hungry?
No one can say for sure, but according to the information they have published from time to time, these agencies seem to collect data and store them in databases that should not exist. In the case of BND, there was even a refusal to audit the agency's actions with the Federal Commissioner for Personal Data Protection (BfDI).
A summary of the analysis of a classified report submitted by former Commissioner for Personal Data Protection Peter Schaar when he sent his representatives to inspect the NSA-BND joint station in Bad Aibling in southern Germany in the wake of the revelations of Edward Snowden, was drafted by today's Commissioner, Andrea Voßhoff, and was published last week by the German Netzpolitik blog.
The report shows that the BND, which is administratively under the German Chancellery office, regularly ignores laws and the German constitution.
Among what he reveals are:
- The Bad Aibling station was used not only for satellite interception from crisis areas, as claimed by service in the past, but also for wiretapping in non-European countries.
- Seven databases filled with extensive personal data were illegally created. One of them was created with the help of XKeyscore, the toolthe NSA's collection of public and private communications from worldwide Internet traffic.
- Some of these data belong to persons who are not allowed to be monitored by the BND, ie German citizens who are not suspected of anything specific. All of the data was shared with the NSA.
- The Commissioner refused access to a selected database with more than 14 million subscriptions provided by the NSA to BND.
- Another database contains metadata of all communication lines, which are collected indiscriminately. They do not exist archives recording and thus the Data Protection Commissioner could not control how the data is used. In addition, the BND repeatedly deleted data pending examination by the Data Protection Commissioner.
- Απαγορεύτηκε η είσοδος της Επιτρόπου στο κτίριο της υπηρεσίας Special US Liaison Activity Germany (SUSLAG), όπου ανταλλάσσονται δεδομένα μαζικής επιτήρησης μεταξύ της BND και της NSA, και η BND αρνήθηκε να αναφέρει πόσοι άνθρωποι εργάζονται για τις αρχές των ΗΠΑ στον σταθμό του Bad Aibling.
Commissioner Voßhoff sent the analysis-complaint to the Chancellery at the beginning of 2016 and, according to Andre Meister of Netzpolitik, the German government is trying to draft a bill that will legitimize BND's actions and broaden its scope.
"This package of legislation is scheduled to be adopted this year and will probably enter into force early next year," he added.
Unfortunately, governments around the world are using the same tactics to keep citizens complacent. While at the beginning they state that "we have adequate supervision over the actions of the intelligence service" each audit can prove the opposite.
So, once proven to the contrary, governments are changing laws to make illegal actions legitimate, and life continues.
Dedicated to those who continue to believe there is security on the internet.
