Daily Updates about the Spying Alliance

We learn something new almost every day about the formidable technical scope of the National Security Agency and its countless accomplices. We are told about quantities of data, which we can scarcely comprehend, and about a gigantic storage capacity and extremely efficient search programs. Two-thirds of Germans are worried by this, according to surveys; the other third is not. It is hard to say who is right. Is the American surveillance apparatus indeed dangerous for us? Or is it not the case that it protects us from terror?

It is the nature of the game that an intelligence service only discloses that, which can no longer be denied. This is what the NSA is doing; these salami tactics are fueling the outrage. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that the agents had willing informers among large telecommunications companies and the endorsement of friendly governments. This serves to reinforce the impression of a spying alliance that can potentially spy on every one of us. Let’s not deceive ourselves: The Americans are coming in for a lot of criticism at the moment, but they are not the only ones fishing for data. The British are doing it and so are the French, Russians, Chinese and, oh yes, the Germans.