Facebook Faces PRISM Data Investigation In Ireland

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Facebook Faces PRISM Data Investigation In Ireland

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 24, 2013 @06:57PM from the like-this dept.

judgecorp writes "Facebook's links to the NSA's PRISM program could be investigated in Ireland, thanks to the persistence of some Austrian law students. The group has challenged Facebook in Europe as it has its regional headquarters there for tax reasons. 'The [Data Protection Commissioner] simply wanted to get this hot potato off his table instead of doing his job. But when it comes to the fundamental rights of millions of users and the biggest surveillance scandal in years, he will have to take responsibility and do something about it,' said the leader of the student group, Max Schrems."

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what is dpc by noh8rz10 · 2013-10-24 18:59 · Score: 1

what is dpc
1. Re: what is dpc by des_irl · 2013-10-24 19:04 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  the Data Protection Commissioner
2. Re:what is dpc by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 19:04 · Score: 0
  
  Data Protection Commissioner
3. Re:what is dpc by duke_cheetah2003 · 2013-10-24 19:05 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC)
4. Re: what is dpc by EJB · 2013-10-24 19:27 · Score: 2
  
  RTFA
5. Re: what is dpc by jeromef · 2013-10-24 20:24 · Score: 2
  
  Sure, the OP should probably have read the article before asking. But am I the only one thinking that the summary should be understandable without RTFA first? For non-obvious abbreviations, I think an editor's note is appropriate.
6. Re: what is dpc by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 20:31 · Score: 0
  
  Sure, the OP should probably have read the article before asking. But am I the only one thinking that the summary should be understandable without RTFA first? For non-obvious abbreviations, I think an editor's note is appropriate.
  what is OP?
7. Re: what is dpc by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 20:40 · Score: 0
  
  what is RTFA
8. Re:what is dpc by jalopezp · 2013-10-24 20:41 · Score: 1
  
  http://www.acronymfinder.com/DPC.html
9. Re: what is dpc by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 21:24 · Score: 0
  
  RTFM and you'll find out
10. Re:what is dpc by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 21:49 · Score: 0
  
  LOL well said
11. Re:what is dpc by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 23:48 · Score: 0
  
  And now I have coffee all over the place.
  Thanks.
12. Re: what is dpc by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 01:32 · Score: 0
  
  Come on, you're not new here, you know better than that. Nobody reads the fucking article.
13. Re: what is dpc by fizzer06 · 2013-10-25 03:24 · Score: 1
  
  Third sentence in the summary.
14. Re: what is dpc by noh8rz10 · 2013-10-25 03:28 · Score: 1
  
  to be fair, the editors went back and updated the summary, so my question wasn't totally out in left field.
15. Re: what is dpc by davester666 · 2013-10-25 06:43 · Score: 1
  
  Um, there is a very long tradition of making sure the summary of any article never contains all the facts of the article, but rather just a selected few, to completely mislead the reader as to what the article might be about. Thus you can determine how much each person posting has read:
  -only read the title
  -only read the summary [significantly fewer]
  -read the article [occasionally someone does this]
  
  --
  Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Quick, somebody do something! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 19:01 · Score: 0

I'm not sure what gave it away, but I think they're onto us!
1. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by Opportunist · 2013-10-24 19:23 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  What gave it away? Sloppy work 'cause nobody gives a fuck anymore. Why bother hiding that you're spying on the people after you noticed that, hey, the people don't care?
  Wouldn't you feel a bit let down? I mean, think about it, you spend resources, time and energy on hiding that you're essentially putting your citizens under total surveillance, you enjoy how you manage to deceive and fool your population, only to notice that the main reason it worked was that nobody gives a shit?
  That must hurt some egos, really. And of course they go "ffft, why bother with stealth, they don't appreciate it at all!"
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
2. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 19:55 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  What gave it away? Sloppy work 'cause nobody gives a fuck anymore. Why bother hiding that you're spying on the people after you noticed that, hey, the people don't care?
  Wouldn't you feel a bit let down? I mean, think about it, you spend resources, time and energy on hiding that you're essentially putting your citizens under total surveillance, you enjoy how you manage to deceive and fool your population, only to notice that the main reason it worked was that nobody gives a shit?
  That must hurt some egos, really. And of course they go "ffft, why bother with stealth, they don't appreciate it at all!"
  The more central and pertinent issue might be that people feel powerless and don't know how to respond to such a broad and overarching system of checks that were unknown to them until recently. The mouse does not complain about the maze because the mouse knows no better. Cheese, wheels and conditioning.
  God bless America.
3. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by znrt · 2013-10-24 20:28 · Score: 2
  
  The more central and pertinent issue might be that people feel powerless
  that's definitely an issue, but GP's irony is spot on, the central issue is that most of us simply don't know / don't care. if we did we'd eventually find out that we're not so powerless after all.
  
  God bless America.
  abuse of power comes with power, it's not an "US mentality" thing. it's just US (elite) has (still) way too much power (right now), but don't believe for a second that EU powers, despite all of the public righteousness in these topics, don't incur in the very same abuse aswell. and even though current US policing is strongly questionable there's absolutely no sign that the world will be better off after the foreseeable coming power shift. quite the contrary.
4. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by Opportunist · 2013-10-24 20:39 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The main reason the EU powers that are are so outraged about the spying is simply that it happens TO them, not BY them.
  Merkel (German chancellor) just yesterday found out that her cell was bugged by the NSA. The outrage was all over the place. Just a year ago the total surveillance of Germans on the internet was "without alternative".
  Don't ever think anyone of the polidroids that now get irate over the wholesale spying wouldn't do it to you in the blink of an eye. They only hate if if it's done ON them, but they love to have it done BY them.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
5. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by gbjbaanb · 2013-10-24 22:05 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  someone needs to reveal that Obama's phone was tapped by, say, the Korean government. Then, surely we'd see the American government continue to say how perfectly reasonable and normal phone interception of world leaders is.
6. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 00:01 · Score: 0
  
  Nine, ze Hauptbahnhoff at 12920 Se 38th Street,Bellevue, WA, 98006-7305 iz nicht safe!
  duh, yeah, like nobody in German speaks Yiddisch, or herd about the israeli-wiretaps...
  "The French, unlike ze Germans, do not stand a chance against AMDOCS/AKAMAI/ONAVO co-conspiritors, and Frau Merkel, if you ever deluded yourself into thinking (they might get away with) that, you might be fooled.”
  signed- Arnold "Dom" Schwarzter"Kopf"
  "damn ur hot, wuts ur cell-number"-punter for the niners
  "if you really want it, juST HACK AMDOCS" -anonymous Tenner
7. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by cold+fjord · 2013-10-25 00:36 · Score: 1
  
  What gave it away? Sloppy work 'cause nobody gives a fuck anymore. Why bother hiding that you're spying on the people after you noticed that, hey, the people don't care?
  Wouldn't you feel a bit let down? I mean, think about it, you spend resources, time and energy on hiding that you're essentially putting your citizens under total surveillance, you enjoy how you manage to deceive and fool your population, only to notice that the main reason it worked was that nobody gives a shit?
  You're quite mistaken. Somebody cares.
  
  --
  much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
8. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by cold+fjord · 2013-10-25 00:54 · Score: 1
  
  The Russians and Chinese are keeping very quiet about their intelligence on world leaders, as well as everything else. Since Snowden apparently didn't bother to bring copies of documents on what is know about them we probably won't hear much about it.
  
  --
  much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
9. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by cusco · 2013-10-25 01:02 · Score: 1
  
  That's the address for T-Mobile, if anyone wonders.
  
  --
  "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
10. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by DoofusOfDeath · 2013-10-25 01:16 · Score: 1
  
  Well, that, and the uneasy thought that some level of covert surveillance might actually be necessary, in some cases, to prevent things like 9/11.
  I for one don't know exactly how much surveillance is enough to give the best tradeoff of (a) risk of mass murder by terrorist, vs. (b) risk of American becoming a full-blown dictatorship,
  I suspect the NSA is over-reaching, and I definitely consider them to be violating the intent of the Constitution. But I don't know by how much, and most of my fellow citizens seem generally okay with the current balance, so what I believe doesn't apparently matter much anyway.
11. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by wisnoskij · 2013-10-25 02:05 · Score: 1
  
  No, people absolutely do not feel powerless, they just do not care, if they are even aware.
  1% might feel powerless, but that is probably an exaggeration.
  
  --
  Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
12. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 07:35 · Score: 0
  
  The main reason the EU powers that are are so outraged about the spying is simply that it happens TO them, not BY them.
  The main reason I as a European citizen am pissed is also because it is happening TO me, BY the USA. So what's your point? This is exactly how I expect the European government to represent me: with outrage. If it was done BY us and they were caught, I would expect them to respond with shame, and I'm pretty sure that's how they would respond. Not the US government of course, they never do anything wrong.
13. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by sjames · 2013-10-25 08:07 · Score: 1
  
  The rabbit's default response is to freeze, then to run. Take away those options by cornering it and it will make sure you never forget that it has teeth and claws again.
14. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by sjames · 2013-10-25 08:10 · Score: 1
  
  Quick, you are outraged that the NSA has captured the metadata about every phone call you have ever made, what is your action plan?
15. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by Opportunist · 2013-10-25 10:38 · Score: 1
  
  Our government didn't care JACK about it as long as spying was only done on US but not THEM. Didn't notice it? SWIFT? And all the other "data peering agreements"? Never heard of it, how they were bending over backwards to agree on data exchange with the US so they get all the juicy data about all of their subjects, I mean, citizens?
  The only reason for the outrage is that now their own privacy is being violated. As long as it only happened to us plebes, nobody gave half a shit. Quite the contrary, they wanted in on it.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
16. Re:Quick, somebody do something! by Opportunist · 2013-10-25 10:42 · Score: 1
  
  US intelligence saying that Snowden informing the public about illegal wiretapping is bad because now the badbadbad terrrrrrists change their tactics. Umm. Sure. And I'll believe that... why exactly?
  Assertion without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
  Sorry, but the intel boys have about as much credibility left as the average used car salesman.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
About fuckin' time! by frootcakeuk · 2013-10-24 19:15 · Score: 3, Funny

I hope someone's balls get cut off! Maybe they can sort this 'beheading vids' bullshit out while they're at it

--
Remember kids: What's right isn't as important as what's profitable.
1. Re:About fuckin' time! by Seumas · 2013-10-24 19:56 · Score: 1
  
  Both of those things will be okay -- as long as there's no *gasp* side-boob!
2. Re:About fuckin' time! by Opportunist · 2013-10-24 20:42 · Score: 1
  
  Knowing the current proceedings, I wouldn't be so happy about seeing someone's balls being cut off. It's far from impossible that in some twisted way OUR balls will be on the line.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
3. Re:About fuckin' time! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 00:39 · Score: 0
  
  Twisted AND cut off...? Ouch!
Potatoes by wonkey_monkey · 2013-10-24 19:17 · Score: 4, Funny

The DPC simply wanted to get this hot potato off his table
I thought the Irish liked potatoes.

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
1. Re:Potatoes by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 21:01 · Score: 1
  
  Just like the Americans like invading other countries and bombing them into oblivion!
2. Re:Potatoes by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 21:59 · Score: 0
  
  Why do you hate freedom?
3. Re:Potatoes by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 22:21 · Score: 0
  
  Oh no! Please! Don't liberate us! We don't need US democracy!
4. Re:Potatoes by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 23:34 · Score: 0
  
  Too late: the Star-Spangled Curtain is about to fall across Europe...
5. Re:Potatoes by themushroom · 2013-10-25 04:08 · Score: 1
  
  Someone mistook a steaming turd for a baked spud. Do not offer me your mashed potatoes, thanks.
  
  --
  Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
6. Re:Potatoes by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 04:32 · Score: 0
  
  the way they behave themselves in Congress ? hell no we don't need em .. with the Americans as " friends" we don't need enemies either .. we have our hands full fighting them for OUR freedom already.
HA-ha! by SeaFox · 2013-10-24 19:25 · Score: 3, Insightful

See where your tax dodging schemes got you, Facebook?
1. Re:HA-ha! by Sique · 2013-10-24 19:34 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  In this case, setting up their EU headquarters in any other EU state wouldn't have made a difference, because Data Protection laws are similar through the whole EU. Setting up country headquarters in each country they are operating in would have made it more easy for Max Schrems to go after them, as he would have filed the complaint in his home country.
  We should rather say: "See, even your tax and judical review dodging schemes didn't help you."
  
  --
  .sig: Sique *sigh*
2. Re:HA-ha! by intermodal · 2013-10-25 02:17 · Score: 1
  
  Setting up a European headquarters was the mistake, not which country it was set up in. Create an actual legal presence somewhere and you have that many more legal systems to contend with.
  
  --
  In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
3. Re:HA-ha! by Sique · 2013-10-25 18:40 · Score: 1
  
  It's not easy to do business in the EU without having a headquarter there. And if Facebook wants to offer ad space for EU based companies, it has to have an EU presence.
  
  --
  .sig: Sique *sigh*
4. Re:HA-ha! by intermodal · 2013-10-28 01:07 · Score: 1
  
  There's a much better solution. Subcontractors, my friend. Subcontractors.
  
  --
  In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 19:29 · Score: 4, Insightful

What we need is a European Email and Social Network company. One that we know won't offer back doors to the US Security Organisations. One that is free from interference
1. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Lennie · 2013-10-24 19:42 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Federated or disitributed is the only solution.
  Everything else is useless. As Eben Moglen would say: everything can keep their own logs.
  
  --
  New things are always on the horizon
2. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by JaredOfEuropa · 2013-10-24 19:47 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  How about one without back doors toany security organisations?
  
  Same problem with that proposed new EU law: if adopted, it will forbid companies to share data to non-EU law enforcement agencies without an EU judge approving the matter. I am much in favour of this idea: if the law does not compel you to share data, you are forbidden to share it; none of this voluntary cooperation crap. But I was disappointed to note that no-one spoke up to make the law universal, i.e. to also forbid voluntary sharing with EU-based agencies.
  
  --
  If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
3. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 20:02 · Score: 0
  
  I don't think it is realistic to assume no back doors. But if there is a back door for European Security Services at least our European Industries such as Airbus, Volkswagon etc will be protected.
  Time for EuroMail and EuroSocial
4. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 20:07 · Score: 0
  
  How about one without back doors toany security organisations? Same problem with that proposed new EU law: if adopted, it will forbid companies to share data to non-EU law enforcement agencies without an EU judge approving the matter. I am much in favour of this idea: if the law does not compel you to share data, you are forbidden to share it; none of this voluntary cooperation crap. But I was disappointed to note that no-one spoke up to make the law universal, i.e. to also forbid voluntary sharing with EU-based agencies.
  Europe definitely have privacy and data protection issues that needs highlighting and protesting. But most European countries do not have anything close to NSA level surveillance. The laws and due process are much stricter than what gives NSA its "freedom" to operate. The US "war on terror" that is justifying all of this is not supported/adopted in most European countries. And, for a number of the smaller European countries, they don't really have security agencies of this scale and capability at all.
5. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by FriendlyLurker · 2013-10-24 20:11 · Score: 1
  
  Must be a hard problem to solve right as unfortunately no such Federated/distributed system has stepped up to the plate. (Diaspora springs to mind but the average user could hardly install and start using it...).
6. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by JaredOfEuropa · 2013-10-24 20:19 · Score: 1
  
  And, for a number of the smaller European countries, they don't really have security agencies of this scale and capability at all.
  You'd think so. And you'd be wrong. These agencies may not have the capability to do covert surveillance abroad on the scale of the NSA operation, but domestically some of them are quite active and capable.
  
  In Germany, various police and security agencies have infiltrated the extreme right Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, but refuse to disclose the names of their inside men to each other. The joke goes that the party leadership now consists entirely of government agents.
  As for "legal" surveillance, there are days on which the Netherlands performs more (court-mandated) wiretaps than the entire USA conducts in a year.
  
  --
  If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
7. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Opportunist · 2013-10-24 20:45 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, that way we'll make sure it will only bend over to any and all EU governments, but it will be fortified against US requests. Well, unless the US wants to get into a data exchange agreement with the EU, that is.
  Frankly, I'd rather use some Chinese or Iranian social service. About your only chance to not have the NSA dig through your privates at leisure.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
8. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by jalopezp · 2013-10-24 20:55 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Yeah, but it's not up to the average user to get the network going. It is the technically proficient that should install diaspora, if enough of us have a server signing up won't be difficult. And as time passes and the network grows, diaspora will become easier to install. Walk throughs get written, makeuseof and lifehacker write articles, then some of the steps get automated as more people post the subtleties of their particular configuration, and finally you get something that's as easy as installing mint.
  I dislike it when technical people complain about average users finding things difficult that average users shouldn't be doing anyway. It's not their job, dummy, if we want a better network it's up to us to build it. What do we run servers for anyway?
9. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Godwin+O'Hitler · 2013-10-24 21:36 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I suspect most of the European national security services (well, all except GCHQ) are delighted the NSA has taken the heat off them.
  A few insincere sound bytes from Merkel and Hollande and it's Vive la liberté—when all the time the deceitful bastards know fine well "there but for the grace of Snowden go I."
  My point being that I have totally no reason to prefer snooping from by government over snooping by another.
  
  --
  No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
10. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Godwin+O'Hitler · 2013-10-24 21:37 · Score: 2
  
  errr ... that was meant to be "snooping by one government over snooping by another"
  
  --
  No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
11. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by drinkypoo · 2013-10-24 22:23 · Score: 1
  
  As for "legal" surveillance, there are days on which the Netherlands performs more (court-mandated) wiretaps than the entire USA conducts in a year.
  Wait, is that legal wiretaps vs legal wiretaps? Or legal, avowed wiretaps vs. illegal, unavowed wiretaps?
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
12. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 22:41 · Score: 0
  
  Legal in the same way as Saddam Hussein's killing of Kurds was legal: he made it legal.
  'course the USA didn't, therefore the world had to be forced to enter into battle against this "international criminal".
13. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by AmiMoJo · 2013-10-24 23:09 · Score: 1
  
  Americans always assume everyone else is at least as bad as they are, usually worse. They are most often wrong.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
14. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 23:20 · Score: 0
  
  Every single european nation would love to do what the NSA did. They lack America's bloated, runaway budget for that. Also, technical competence.
15. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 23:50 · Score: 0
  
  At the point that Despora becomes easy enough for Zynga to want in, usability turns from a Feature to a Bug.
16. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 23:55 · Score: 0
  
  Maybe they just understand the consequences of being a dick, eventually everybody knows your a dick when you get caught.
17. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 00:08 · Score: 0
  
  Eben Moglen, the FSF and Richard Stallman got this wrong.
  It is true that you can keep your logs if what you do is isolated.
  Whenever you interact with someone, say in a social setting, then all the participants get to keep their logs. This means that there is no privacy guarantees in a group setting.
  So no, distributed or federated are far from perfect solutions. There is no deletion of pictures that you published by accident in a federeated system. There is no tweaking of privacy setting that reach back in time.
  You cannot solve the problem the way you propose. It is fundamentally flawed.
18. Re: Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 00:20 · Score: 0
  
  And why, exactly, do you *need* a social network?
19. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Godwin+O'Hitler · 2013-10-25 01:07 · Score: 1
  
  Not sure why you addressed that reply to a Brit (sig gives it away, right?), but kudos all the same for an admirably constructed generalization.
  
  --
  No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
20. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 01:23 · Score: 0
  
  And, for a number of the smaller European countries, they don't really have security agencies of this scale and capability at all.
  You'd think so. And you'd be wrong. These agencies may not have the capability to do covert surveillance abroad on the scale of the NSA operation, but domestically some of them are quite active and capable. In Germany, various police and security agencies have infiltrated the extreme right Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands, but refuse to disclose the names of their inside men to each other. The joke goes that the party leadership now consists entirely of government agents. As for "legal" surveillance, there are days on which the Netherlands performs more (court-mandated) wiretaps than the entire USA conducts in a year.
  Well (AC you replied to here), I'm from Europe and I don't really count Germany among "the smaller European countries", in Europe they are a (the) giant. Some of the large ones have ambitions and capabilities like this, many of the smaller countries not.
  It would be interesting with a citation on the Netherlands claim.
21. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by cusco · 2013-10-25 01:47 · Score: 1
  
  And right here the dogma of "the free market will provide" breaks down.
  
  --
  "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
22. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 01:56 · Score: 0
  
  Don't forget the Chinese are still out there, and Europe has as much to worry about as the US did, especially with how the US's solar industry was seized by intrusions, then 6-12 months later, panels made and exported for cheaper than the rare earths cost.
  Europe has little to worry about though. The EU is solid as a rock and too big and diversified to fail or have a "lost decade" like Japan and the US.
23. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by cusco · 2013-10-25 02:00 · Score: 1
  
  People forget about the whole reason for Echelon's existence. It was illegal for the US and several other foreign intel agencies to spy on their own people. The way they got around this was to have the US spy on their people, spy on US citizens, and then the two sides would exchange data. Of course that was before the US promoted a former head of the CIA to the White House, so the intel agencies had to at least pretend to follow the laws.
  
  --
  "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
24. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by DoofusOfDeath · 2013-10-25 02:07 · Score: 1
  
  As for "legal" surveillance, there are days on which the Netherlands performs more (court-mandated) wiretaps than the entire USA conducts in a year.
  Perhaps if you count the NSA's continual, ubiquitous surveillance to be just one wiretap.
25. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by mjwalshe · 2013-10-25 03:19 · Score: 1
  
  You know the EU passed a very widespread requirement for all data to be available to the powers to be not that long ago. And i am sure Angela will be wanting to keep an eye on the greeks to make sure they dont up set the Euro apple cart
26. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 04:37 · Score: 0
  
  I'd say what we need is InterUser 1 : A network built from scratch that is totally independent from ANY companies or government involvement where only users have the rights to make nodes and where any telecom company accesses are forbidden and enforced, where snooping is impossible and nodes that do try anything can be destroyed as soon as the suspicious activity is discovered.
27. Re:Email and Social Network for Europe by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 04:46 · Score: 0
  
  think routing .. if the data goes through the american installations all the " local solutions " are worthless. they way the internet is wired is WAY more important than having local servers to protect you and your data . As long as the installations revealed during the first few weeks remain in operation ( snoopers around the world ) and relay the traffic to the US , you're just as stuck . The internet as a whole being a compromised system , i see no way to keep privacy but by abandoning it where it stands .. been a nice ride .. but America has destroyed it's value by being the paranoid bastards they became .. the terrorists won over America .
Link to source by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 23:13 · Score: 1

http://europe-v-facebook.org/
Lazy submitter, bad editor, silly techweek for omitting it...
You were fine when it was the USA only. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-24 23:23 · Score: 0

If there is now one less country, and a foreighn power at that, doing it, it's not *perfect*, but it's one step closer to it.
This feels like Christmas for me by DoofusOfDeath · 2013-10-25 00:58 · Score: 1

Activist citizens using Europe's consumer data protection laws attacking the NSA and Facebook in one fell swoop?
I just feel so giddy.
This is just having it ass backwards.... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-25 00:59 · Score: 0

Take on Facebook and leave Google, freaking double standards!
NSA into music now? by honestmonkey · 2013-10-25 02:16 · Score: 1

Why is the NSA putting out Katy Perry's new album?

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Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
Stop Using Facebook by koan · 2013-10-25 02:24 · Score: 1

Just stop.
http://inc.anphicle.com/2010/07/they-trust-me-dumb-zuckerberg.jpg

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"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Its the economy stupid. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-26 15:44 · Score: 0

I suspect one reason why there is so much "outrage and unity" on this is because its one thing the EU leaders can agree on. They are avoiding their real problem - the economy. Surely, Merkel is and Hollande are not so naive...if a state, a western power at that, cannot manage secure communications they should just give up or buy typewriters.