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| ▲ | lupusreal 2 days ago | parent [-] | | It's a classic Motte and Bailey. "Europe acts in this way, so much better than America. [...] No no, not THAT Europe, I of course was only talking about this other part of Europe!" How is the most populous state in the EU doing? > The German parliament amended two laws on June 10th granting enhanced surveillance powers to segments of the federal police and intelligence services. They allow the use of spyware to hack into phones and computers circumventing encryption used by messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Signal, raising concerns about the right to privacy. > The new federal police law allows interception of communications of “persons against whom no suspicion of a crime has yet been established and therefore no criminal procedure measure can yet be ordered”. This fails to ensure the necessary protection against unjustified and arbitrary interference in people’s privacy, required under international law. Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have pointed out the importance of encryption and anonymity for data protection and the right to privacy. > The government argues that new legislation is needed to keep up with technological developments and claims the new powers are to help federal police stifle human trafficking and undocumented migration. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/06/24/germanys-new-surveillanc... ...oh | | |
| ▲ | tmnvdb 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Isn't this something the US has had on steroids for many years? I.e. Patriot act, PRISM, FISA, national security letters? | |
| ▲ | Gud 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Exactly. Most European countries have turned into surveillance states. I think only Switzerland is holding their banner high. | | |
| ▲ | HighGoldstein 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Please provide examples of how the following countries are surveillance states: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France | | |
| ▲ | Gud 2 days ago | parent [-] | | I don’t know much about many of those countries, and I have no reason to spend hours googling them. but I know my home country Sweden, which used to have solid freedoms, have deteriorated quickly in the last few years. Which is why I have moved to Switzerland, where the citizenry respect each other privacy(no country is perfect, but I do believe their decentralised direct democracy
will keep protecting their liberties). A recent law has enabled the Swedish police to open mail to private individuals if they suspect there might be drugs in them. This is just one change of many that has reduced the liberties of the citizens. Don’t get me wrong, the Swedes want it this way. They are no longer a freedom loving people, sadly. https://www.sverigesradio.se/artikel/police-to-contact-thous... | | |
| ▲ | HighGoldstein 2 days ago | parent [-] | | > I don’t know much about many of those countries, and I have no reason to spend hours googling them. A good reason might be to back up the serious accusation a few comments above. > A recent law has enabled the Swedish police to open mail to private individuals if they suspect there might be drugs in them. This is just one change of many that has reduced the liberties of the citizens. While this isn't ideal in a vacuum, I don't see the alternative. If physical mail is given inviolable privacy, you're pretty much handing bad actors the perfect delivery system on a silver platter. I'm sure there's other examples of decisions that increased Swedish authorities' surveillance capabilities, but to call a country a surveillance state requires a little more than "They can check your mail if they suspect you're using it for drug delivery". | | |
| ▲ | Gud 2 days ago | parent [-] | | who said mail should be given 'inviolable privacy'? Now there is enough reason to open private mail if the mail is a little squishy and it was sent from the wrong address. |
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