Posted on 08/05/2013 3:07:03 PM PDT by Olog-hai
With the NSA spying scandal continuing to make headlines in Europe, the German Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, has raised the possibility of new, tangible measures to punish corporations that participate in American spying activities.
In an interview with Die Welt, the liberal Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger called for the creation of EU-wide rules to regulate the protection of information, and said that once those rules are in place, “United States companies that don’t abide by these standards should be denied doing business in the European market.”
Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said that a package of EU measures is required in order to fight “the widespread spying of foreign spy services” and that German data protection laws should be a yardstick for the rest of the European Union—German privacy laws are considerably tighter than those of the United States and much of Europe. …
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Ms. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is a left libertarian who lost to Angela Merkel in a pageant.
The funny thing is that the Europeans may be better protected against US spying than US citizens if they really manage to push this through the EU commission.
East Germany's surveillance state appeared to be even more extensive than the Soviet Union's. And, they realize how wrong it was.
On this side of the Atlantic, I think our government has forgotten what the USA used to stand for.
The UK seems to be worse than the US. I know they aren’t EU, but they’re really bad. I have no doubt that Germany may be as bad, but they still have the Stasi memories at least.
Fokk Ja, they paid for it. They own it.
They didn’t pay for it, though.
Um, no. There is no such thing as a politburo protecting anyone’s privacy.
Just look up the BND and what they get up to.
Universal Surveillance Agency, duh!
It seems like they learned their lessons.
LLS
Europeans live for this kind of stuff. They’re still pissed at us for saving their bacon in WWII and this is a way to get even. In particular it’s a way for Germany to turn the tables on its moral better, the United States. It’s a way to take some shine off the American apple.
That’s my possibly too-cynical read on some of the psychology behind this anyway.
USA has always stood for Universal Stasi Agency, citizen...
Johnny Carson ~ “I think at this point, we should remind the audience that Fokker is a German aircraft manufacturer”
Veteran ~ “No, these were Messerschmidts...”
This is a tempest in a teapot as compared to what the fallout is going to be in retaliation for Obama’s “veto” of apple trade sanctions as a fallout from Apples litigation against Samsung.
Tell the little Eva Braun that she lost the war. Now get over it!
I think an American boycott of German goods would put a real hurt on their economy.
Think again, Shatzie. We don’t need your Schnitzel or Kraut.
NSA IS collecting every call, word-for-word, now.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs/july-dec13/whistleblowers_08-01.html
I am all for it as long as Germany can’t sell any Siemens equipment, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Airbus or BMW stuff here in the USA.
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