Courtesy of Mish.
Just when it seemed that president Obama had anger over US spying under control, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped to the plate with a hard verbal punch aimed straight at Obama's face and the NSA.
Please consider Angela Merkel Backs EU Internet to Deter US Spying.
Momentum for a radical response to the National Security Agency spy scandal is building after Germany’s chancellor backed calls for European internet services that are walled off from the US.
Ms Merkel said she would press François Hollande, the French president, to back a push for EU-based alternatives to the current US-dominated internet infrastructure when she holds talks in Paris on Wednesday.
“We’ll talk with France about how we can maintain a high level of data protection,” Ms Merkel said in her weekly podcast. “Above all, we’ll talk with European providers that offer security for our citizens, so that one shouldn’t have to send emails and other information across the Atlantic.”
Some tech experts have warned that proposals to build alternative networks in Europe and force internet companies to store data about Europeans locally fail to take account of how the internet operates, or the continued legal obligation of American companies to turn information over to the NSA no matter where it is stored. US tech companies have also warned that a move to build secure regional networks would fragment the internet, turning it into a series of isolated regional data systems.
Ms Merkel’s decision to throw her personal backing behind EU-centric internet services reflects how politically charged the issue is in Germany. Mr Snowden gave an interview to state broadcaster ARD saying the creation of a European “cloud” that did not send electronic data to servers on US soil would not defend Europe from espionage.
“The NSA goes where the data are,” Mr Snowden told ARD. “If the NSA can pull text messages out of telecommunications networks in China, they can probably manage to get Facebook messages out of Germany.”
In her podcast, the German chancellor, attacked Google and Facebook for basing their operations “where data protection is lowest” – an apparent swipe at Ireland, where both companies have their European headquarters. Referring to the two US companies, Ms Merkel said: “That’s something that in the long run we can’t endorse in Europe.”
Ms Merkel’s proposal is likely to win support from sections of German industry, where there is widespread concern about the security of intellectual property.
Sensitive to rising distrust among European consumers, some American tech firms have signalled a shift in strategy, with Microsoft saying it would allow overseas customers to have personal data stored on servers outside the US. Other US companies, like Google and Facebook, have opposed such European clouds – which have been championed by the European Commission in Brussels – over fears that they could Balkanise the internet and hamper its operation.
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