Germany’s justice minister says a plan by the country’s foreign intelligence service, BND, to ramp up its monitoring of the internet is ill timed in the wake of revelations about the US’ PRISM program.
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger says BND plans to invest €100 million in extending its web watching will do little to reassure the public, and may even give the impression Germany is taking over where the US left off. The security agency will use the funds to increase staff numbers and buy new technology, Reuters reports, citing German newspaper Der Spiegel.
Revelations about the US PRISM scheme have angered many Germans, with those who lived in the former East Germany particularly angered, Reuters notes.
The UK foreign secretary, William Hague, last week refused to confirm if the country’s security forces had accessed PRISM, but stated security teams always stick to the law.