Data privacy issues following PRISM affair

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4. Did you see this piece? GCHQ reported to have access to almost all European internet

http://www.dw.de/gchq-reported-to-have-access-to-almost-all-european-internet-traffic/a-17053061

Britain's GCHQ is reported to have wider access to Europe's electronic communications than previously thought. The media reports are based partly on documents released by former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden.
The reports published by the German public broadcaster NDR and the Süddeutsche newspaper said documents made available to them by Edward Snowden indicate that Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is capable of gathering and analyzing data from almost all of the traffic that passes through Europe's internet network.

According to the reports, the GCHQ's capabilities are particularly strong with regard to Germany's electronic communications. This is made possible in large part due to a total of 14 fiber optic cables worldwide, which are used to deliver data between and countries and continents. Some of these lead to and from Germany's northern coast, and the German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom belongs to a consortium, which operates two of them.

These cables, the reports said, help the GCHQ to snoop on emails not just within Europe, but even within Germany. However, there is also another major contributing factor.

"Many online services have their servers for the European market in England or Ireland. And here too, the German traffic travels via Great Britain," journalist Jörg Schieb, who specializes in computers and the internet, told NDR.
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The UK is going to have to decide if they want to bring themselves back in line or if they will continue their behavior.