Germany seeks expansion of computer spying. A proposal to secretly scan suspects‘ hard drives causes unease in a nation with a history of official surveillance
Los Angeles Times, 30.10.2007, S. 1/7
… To the unease of many in a country with a history of government spying through the era of the Gestapo and communist rule in East Germany, law enforcement authorities are using the suitcase bomb case to argue for measures that would significantly expand their ability to spy on the once-private realm of My Documents. … “Back in the ‘80s when people were fighting the census, it was because they feared the state could find out that they were not honest toward the tax authorities or something like that,” said Sven Lueders, head of the Humanist Union of Berlin, which helped organize a recent protest against the socalled Bundestrojaner, or federal Trojans. “Now what people fear is that the state can actually look into your computer. Because almost everybody has something on his computer that he doesn‘t want somebody else to see.“ …