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Berlin's Digital Exiles: Where Tech Activists Go To Escape the NSA
An anonymous reader writes with this story about how Berlin has become a haven for Laura Poitras and other journalists who want to limit the amount of NSA disruption in their lives. "It's the not knowing that's the hardest thing, Laura Poitras tells me. 'Not knowing whether I'm in a private place or not.' Not knowing if someone's watching or not. Though she's under surveillance, she knows that. It makes working as a journalist 'hard but not impossible'. It's on a personal level that it's harder to process. 'I try not to let it get inside my head, but I still am not sure that my home is private. And if I really want to make sure I'm having a private conversation or something, I'll go outside.'
.....We're having this conversation in Berlin, her adopted city, where she'd moved to make a film about surveillance before she'd ever even made contact with Snowden. Because, in 2006, after making two films about the US war on terror, she found herself on a 'watch list'. Every time she entered the US – 'and I travel a lot' – she would be questioned. 'It got to the point where my plane would land and they would do what's called a hard stand, where they dispatch agents to the plane and make everyone show their passport and then I would be escorted to a room where they would question me and oftentimes take all my electronics, my notes, my credit cards, my computer, my camera, all that stuff.' She needed somewhere else to go, somewhere she hoped would be a safe haven. And that somewhere was Berlin."
.....We're having this conversation in Berlin, her adopted city, where she'd moved to make a film about surveillance before she'd ever even made contact with Snowden. Because, in 2006, after making two films about the US war on terror, she found herself on a 'watch list'. Every time she entered the US – 'and I travel a lot' – she would be questioned. 'It got to the point where my plane would land and they would do what's called a hard stand, where they dispatch agents to the plane and make everyone show their passport and then I would be escorted to a room where they would question me and oftentimes take all my electronics, my notes, my credit cards, my computer, my camera, all that stuff.' She needed somewhere else to go, somewhere she hoped would be a safe haven. And that somewhere was Berlin."
Germany has "strict" privacy laws, but they largely apply to organizations that don't pose a big threat to privacy in the first place. Police, courts, financial institutions, businesses, tax authorities, secret service, "state police", health insurers, and employers can have a field day with your private data in Germany. The government can easily use telecoms and online services to access private data. This is a country where you must declare your religious affiliation to the government and that spies on democratically elected members of parliament as a matter of course. To the degree that it provides a refuge for Americans on no-fly-lists and under special scrutiny, that's just because it is a separate country; I think you can be pretty certain that as an American activist in Germany, you are closely scrutinized.
We clearly have serious problems with a government that has become far too intrusive and invasive in the US. But Europe has no good ideas for how to fix these problems, least of all countries like Germany.
But, hey, if you disagree, name some specific German laws that we could adopt in the US that you think would help, and explain how they would make a difference.
Berlin has a history of this. I believe, during the Cold War, it was the one place under West Germany's governance whose residence were not subject to the German military draft. So it became a haven for left-leaning I dividuals.
#DeleteChrome
You could argue that the last time the US was "free" was prior to about 1910.
Before the 1911 passage of the 16th Ammendment the government's power to collect income taxes was extremely limited. A good chunk of the loss of financial freedom could be attributed to the income tax and all the various laws that grew up around enforcing it, such as limits on cash transactions, financial reporting, etc.
1909 saw the passage of the "Smoking Opium Exclusion Act" which barred the importation of opium, the first time a substance was banned for consumption. Followed up with the Harrsion Act in 1914 which got tougher on opioids and restricted them to medical uses. This leads to the next step, alcohol prohibition in 1920. Although it was overturned, it was the first big attempt at wholesale regulation of previously free behavior. The entire thing grew into the war on drugs and all the loss of freedom we now associate with it, including contributing to controls on cash transactions, a total erosion of search and seizure and mass incarceration.
Lots of other firsts from that era -- the Red Scare, the rise of Federal law enforcement, etc.
You can say we were "more free" in the 1970s or 60s or whatever, but it seems like we really started to lose it around 1910 when the Federal Government began to assert itself as a central law enforcement and control authority.
You can't even mention a Nazi or you'll be imprisoned.
That's complete nonsense.
It's like they think all of that bad history will simply disappear if they outlaw any discussions or symbols attached to it.
While a number of symbols are outlawed indeed, discussions are not. What caused you to be this misinformed?
I would hate to think what the German government would do to me if I went there and they saw my swastika tattoo. Despite being a part of my cultural heritage and part of my belief system, they'd probably label it a Nazi symbol and throw me in prison.
As long as you don't show it in public, you're fine.
Please stop spreading bullshit like this; it would generally be advisable to not comment on subjects you don't know jack shit about.
Signed,
A German