I feel obliged to point out that the decision of the German government described in the article below is the default position of the US government concerning the collection of electronic communications. The NSA vacuums up everything that passes through cell phones. Landlines are theoretically exempt, under the law, meaning that only metadata on landline calls is harvested. But I have my doubts that the surveillance state pays any attention to that rule.

I assume that everything that I do is monitored by the government — email, Skype, phone calls, web browsing, the whole enchilada. Simple prudence requires that assumption.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Junge Freiheit:

The state is eavesdropping

Faeser prevails: mobile phones are monitored “without cause”

The interior minister supports EU plans for mandatory scanning of private messages. In doing so, the government is breaking a promise.

Berlin/Brussels

In a joint statement to the EU, the federal government approved the monitoring of private communications, such as e-mails and WhatsApp chats. This emerges from the paper published by netzpolitik.org. The SPD, FDP and Greens had rejected such measures in the coalition agreement.

There it was still stated: “We reject general monitoring obligations, measures to scan private communication and an identification obligation.” This promise no longer applies. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), who has long insisted on monitoring private mobile phones and computers, has now sent a “joint position” of the Traffic Light Coalition* to the EU, in which the federal government offers no objection to spying on citizens.

Faeser also agrees to “blocking the Internet”

It is primarily about the fight against sexual abuse and child pornography. Because of this danger, the EU Commission wants to oblige the tech giants to scan and monitor the communication of their users “without cause” and obligatorily.

So far, providers such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Google or Apple have only been allowed to do this as a “temporary exception”. According to a planned EU regulation on the prevention and combating of sexual abuse of children, this is now to be tightened. The FDP in particular had firmly rejected this and insisted on the coalition agreement. But she couldn’t prevail. Now that the new regulation has come into force, the state can monitor practically everywhere.

Faeser also agreed to so-called “network blocks” on behalf of the Traffic Light Coalition towards the EU. This means that users can no longer access certain websites. It should now also be possible to block certain IP addresses. This means that specifically selected users can be kept away from Internet sites. Up until now, the federal government had taken the position of “deleting instead of blocking”.

Afterword from the translator:

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt the Younger, speech in the House of Commons (18 November, 1783)