German intelligence can’t spy on foreigners outside Germany

The German government must come up with a new law regulating its secret services, after the country’s highest court ruled that the current practice of monitoring telecommunications of foreign citizens at will violates constitutionally-enshrined press freedoms and the privacy of communications.

The ruling said that non-Germans were also protected by Germany’s constitutional rights, and that the current law lacked special protection for the work of lawyers and journalists. This applied both to the collection and processing of data as well as passing on that data to other intelligence agencies.

Several foreign journalists, as well as German journalists’ unions and the NGO Reporters Without Borders, had mounted a legal challenge to the latest amendment to the BND law, which sets out what Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, can and can’t do.

Frank Überall, head of the German journalists’ union DJV, described the ruling as a “comprehensive victory for press freedom.”  “A secret service that wants to protect democracy cannot trample on important democratic freedoms,” Überall said in a statement.

Read more: Behind the scenes of Germany’s BND

Frank Überall, head of the German journalists’ union DJV, described the ruling as a “comprehensive victory for press freedom.”  “A secret service that wants to protect demo”The German Constitutional Court has once again underlined the importance of press freedom,” Christian Mihr, director of Reporters Without Borders in Germany, said in a statement. “We are pleased that (the court) has put a stop to the sprawling surveillance activity of the BND abroad.”

“A secret service that wants to protect democracy cannot trample on important democratic freedoms,” Überall said in a statement.

The 2017 amendment effectively legalized what the BND had been doing anyway: monitoring telecommunications anywhere in the world, regardless of suspicion. 

The amendment was introduced in the wake of revelations about the scope and power of the US National Security Agency (NSA), by whistleblower Edward Snowden. 

Fair game outside Germany?

But according to a confidential document on “Signals Intelligence” leaked to Der Spiegel and Bavarian public broadcaster BR last week, the BND has been trying to self-regulate what kind of communications among German citizens it may eavesdrop on, based on the new law. 

Up until now, Der Spiegel reported, the BND had considered foreign nationals living outside Germany essentially fair game, as they assumed they were not protected by Germany’s constitution.

During a hearing in January, Helge Braun, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, had argued that the monitoring of communication was vital to preventing attacks on the German military abroad. He added that the BND law included “comprehensive protection and control measures” that were unique.

The key legal question was whether foreign nationals in other countries were covered by Germany’s constitution, known as the Basic Law, which safeguards human rights – including Article 10, the privacy of correspondence and communications.

Read more: How the CIA and BND spied on world leaders

One of the largest internet exchange points in the world, the Deutsche Commercial Internet Exchange (DE-CIX), is situated in Frankfurt, through which pass internet exchanges to and from France, Russia, and the Middle East among others. According to Der Spiegel, the BND is able to tap into the exchange at will, giving it access up to 1.2 trillion communications per day. There are several other DE-CIX exchange points in Germany, including in Hamburg and Munich.

The Constitutional Court said the government has until the end of 2021 to amend the BND law.

Go here for more news on Germany

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/german-intelligence-can-t-spy-on-foreigners-outside-germany/a-53492342?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom