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MERKEL SAYS US MUST 'OBSERVE GERMAN LAW ON GERMAN TERRITORY'
16:32 16/07/2013 " IN THE WORLD
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has called for a strict European
agreement on data protection requiring all internet service providers
to reveal what personal information they have stored, and to whom
they have made it available, Financial Times reported.
The fundamental law should ensure that companies such as Facebook
and Google would be subject to the same strict privacy rules in all
EU member states, and not simply obey national legislation in the
country where they are registered, she said.
Ms Merkel has faced sharp criticism in recent days for failing to take
decisive action to protect German internet users from the comprehensive
surveillance of internet and telecommunications traffic alleged to
have been conducted by US and British intelligence services.
"Internet companies which are operating in Europe, such as Facebook
and Google, must give . . . European countries the information about
whom they have given data to," she said.
The first requirement was to complete negotiations on a common
European data protection law, on which Germany would take "a very
strict position". She said that although Germany had its own "very
good data protection law", a company like Facebook which was registered
in Ireland was only subject to Irish law.
Other European countries, such as the UK, had "a very different
philosophy" about data protection, and very different laws granting
intelligence services access to communications traffic. "We must have
an intensive discussion to discover what is reasonable," she said. The
German position would be that "the end does not always justify the
means" in collecting intelligence information.
In the clearest indication to date that Ms Merkel believes the US may
have contravened Germany's data protection laws, she said: "I expect
a clear promise from the American government, that in the future they
will observe German law on German territory. We are friendly partners.
We are in a defence alliance and we must be able to rely on each
other."
Source: Panorama.am
16:32 16/07/2013 " IN THE WORLD
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has called for a strict European
agreement on data protection requiring all internet service providers
to reveal what personal information they have stored, and to whom
they have made it available, Financial Times reported.
The fundamental law should ensure that companies such as Facebook
and Google would be subject to the same strict privacy rules in all
EU member states, and not simply obey national legislation in the
country where they are registered, she said.
Ms Merkel has faced sharp criticism in recent days for failing to take
decisive action to protect German internet users from the comprehensive
surveillance of internet and telecommunications traffic alleged to
have been conducted by US and British intelligence services.
"Internet companies which are operating in Europe, such as Facebook
and Google, must give . . . European countries the information about
whom they have given data to," she said.
The first requirement was to complete negotiations on a common
European data protection law, on which Germany would take "a very
strict position". She said that although Germany had its own "very
good data protection law", a company like Facebook which was registered
in Ireland was only subject to Irish law.
Other European countries, such as the UK, had "a very different
philosophy" about data protection, and very different laws granting
intelligence services access to communications traffic. "We must have
an intensive discussion to discover what is reasonable," she said. The
German position would be that "the end does not always justify the
means" in collecting intelligence information.
In the clearest indication to date that Ms Merkel believes the US may
have contravened Germany's data protection laws, she said: "I expect
a clear promise from the American government, that in the future they
will observe German law on German territory. We are friendly partners.
We are in a defence alliance and we must be able to rely on each
other."
Source: Panorama.am