Following allegations that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was targeted by the NSA, new evidence has emerged which suggests that American politicians were recorded by German Intelligence.
According to CNN, Germany’s intelligence service have intercepted phone calls made by the last two US secretaries of state – Hillary Clinton and current member John Kerry. German intelligence service BND apparently intercepted a phone call from Clinton “by chance” in 2012 while she was traveling on a US Government plane, German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported. German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the intelligence service intercepted a satellite call from Kerry in 2013.
According to Sueddeutsche, German Government sources have denied that there is a systematic espionage against the United States, rather that the conversation that Clinton had done in was “caught by accident”. However it was not destroyed immediately, which a a member of the German Government called “idiocy”.
A survey of 1,000 people in UK and 1,000 in Germany by Silent Circle found that 72 per cent of Germans believe their calls and texts are being listened to, compared to 88 per cent of Britons.
Vic Hyder, Revenue Chief for Silent Circle suggests, “This is a trend we’re seeing dramatically increase as individuals start to realise that they do have an option to privacy erosion. Every day we hear from ‘prosumers’, looking to us to help them regain control over the river of personal data being sucked up hourly in exchange for apps purporting to offer ‘free services’. At Silent Circle, our ethos is to offer access to true privacy via secure communication ecosystems for enterprises and individuals alike. And we’re just getting started.”
When asked if they’d buy a phone, or
subscribe to a service, that protected calls/texts from eavesdroppers, a third of Germans (33 per cent) said that they would happily sign up, with almost a quarter of Brits (23 per cent) willing to exchange cash for privacy.
