Posted on 07/01/2013 12:12:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
BERLIN IN May 2010, I received a brown envelope. In it was a CD with an encrypted file containing six months of my life. Six months of metadata, stored by my cellphone provider, T-Mobile. This list of metadata contained 35,830 records. Thats 35,830 times my phone company knew if, where and when I was surfing the Web, calling or texting.
The truth is that phone companies have this data on every customer. I got mine because, in 2009, I filed a suit against T-Mobile for the release of all the data on me that had been gathered and stored. The reason this information had been preserved for six months was because of Germanys implementation of a 2006 European Union directive.
All of this data had to be kept so that law enforcement agencies could gain access to it. That meant that the metadata of 80 million Germans was being stored, without any concrete suspicions and without cause.
This preventive measure was met with huge opposition in Germany. Lawyers, journalists, doctors, unions and civil liberties activists started to protest. In 2008, almost 35,000 people signed on to a constitutional challenge to the law. In Berlin, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest data retention. In the end, the Constitutional Court ruled that the implementation of the European Union directive was, in fact, unconstitutional.
In Germany, whenever government begins to infringe on individual freedom, society stands up. Given our history, we Germans are not willing to trade in our liberty for potentially better security. Germans have experienced firsthand what happens when government knows too much about someone. In the past 80 years, Germans have felt the betrayal of neighbors who informed for the Gestapo and the fear that best friends might be potential informants for the Stasi.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
To the headline: they do?
Did the author love Obama enough to vote for him?
Being a citizen doesn’t matter anymore. Obama will take anyone’s donation or vote.
“YES WE CAN!”
“YES WE CAN!”
“YES WE CAN!”
Sort of like that other guy. What was his name?
Began with an H.
Germans loved Hitler. Then came the Nuremburg Trials and all of a sudden they hated him. Get the picture?
Many liberals would cheer Obama on if he started rounding up conservatives. Many liberals thought it was perfectly fine for the IRS to target conservative groups.
Saugers!
“Germans loved Hitler.”
In 1936 so did a lot of Americans including the Democrats who made a point of copying a lot of Hitler’s programs and policies.
“Many liberals would cheer Obama on if he started rounding up conservatives.”
You’re right. I hear this kind of thing all the time. The counterpoint to this is that I won’t shed any tears for any of these liberals who get rounded up by a right-wing dictator if that comes to pass.
You reap what you sow.
Still, they don’t really get the danger Obama’s Presidency presents to them or to the USA.
Germans have experienced firsthand what happens when government knows too much about someone.
And so have we.
History; it WILL repeat itself.
I won’t shed any tears for the liberals when SHTF. .
Sie waren Dumkopfen!!
Er list win Schweinhund!!
Another person they loved....Hitler. Amazing the similarity’s between them.
I don’t give a rat’s as* what Germans think. They pose and pretend to be such profound political thinkers but supported this sickening clown we have as pResident. They can start making amends by apologizing for their stupidity.
Germans do seem to be exceptionally prone to buyers remorse in their decisions about leaders.
They just "traded in" the liberty of others for it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.