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US, Germany To Enter No-Spying Agreement

Posted by Soulskill on from the solving-nonexistent-problems dept.

itwbennett writes "The German Federal Intelligence Service said in a news release that the U.S. has verbally committed to enter into a no-spying agreement with Germany. The no-spying agreement talks were announced as part of a progress report on an eight-point program proposed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in July with measures to better protect the privacy of German citizens. In the progress report, the German government found that U.S. intelligence services comply with German law. Also, the operators of large German Internet exchanges and the federal government did not find any evidence that the U.S. spies on Germans, the government said."

9 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. yeah, right by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    and no one will ever cheat.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    1. Re:yeah, right by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In other words, a verbal commitment is worth the paper it's written on.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    2. Re:yeah, right by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. I was going to say "don't fall for this, Germany -- we have an agreement for our government not to spy on us, too... it's called the Constitution... which our current Constitutional Lawyer president and former presidents have completely shit upon".

  2. I want one too by Kasamir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can I get a no-spying agreement with the U.S. government?

    1. Re:I want one too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We have one, it's called the fourth amendment.

      See how well that turned out for us?

  3. Don't worry USA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The UK will spy on Germany for you!

  4. Mutual spying agreement by Dr.Dubious+DDQ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I read this as a "spying exchange agreement". The US promises not to spy on Germans, and the Germans agree not to spy on Americans.

    Instead, if the NSA wants spy data on German citizens, they'll metaphorically "extradite" data that the German government has collected on its citizens (and vice versa).

    That would be my guess, anyway.

    --
    Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
  5. No problems ...wink wink by arcite · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The US will just contract out the spying to a third party (or country, ally). No harm no foul. Money talks.

  6. Re:No problems ...wink wink by isorox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The US will just contract out the spying to a third party (or country, ally). No harm no foul. Money talks.

    Yes, the US will contract out it's Euro spying to Germany.

    Meanwhile Germany will contract out it's America spying to the US.

    Job done.