‘Germany no longer gives internet data to NSA’

The German secret service BND no longer provides data about internet traffic to the NSA, German media report. This would have been decided after it turned out that the German secret service had been helping the American services with espionage for years.

Since Monday, the interception station of the German secret service in Bad Aibling no longer transmits internet data to the Americans; only information about faxed documents and telephone calls will be passed on. That writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The reason faxes and phone calls are still being transmitted is that such taps require the NSA to specify why they should be posted. This has not yet been the case with internet data. After revelations about help from the Germans in American espionage, the German government demanded that the internet taps also be motivated. The NSA indicated that it could not do this in the short term, after which the transfer of internet data stopped.

Last month it came out that the German secret service would have greatly aided the NSA in espionage in Europe. In addition, a lot of internet data would have been passed on to the NSA, and top foreign officials, among others, would have been monitored. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus is also said to have been spied on. On Sunday, it turned out that the German secret service also used data about Europeans collected by the NSA.