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Google To Stand Up Against German Government Mail Snoops?
Threatening to close down GoogleMail (Germany) if the German government should persist in enforcing its controversial plans for extensive surveillance and record retention of Internet traffic and e-mail usage, Google has adopted a hardline privacy protection stance.
The proposed new law, tagged as part of Germany’s “war on terror”, will hold e-mail services accountable to keep users’ personally identifiable data on file including full postal addresses they might even be charged to verify via snail mail.
In an interview with Germany’s leading financial weekly Wirtschaftswoche (source: in German), Google’s privacy spokesperson Peter Fleischer pointed out that anonymous e-mail is a prime source of protection for political dissidents, for people concerned about spam mail, etc.
Obviously, it remains to be seen how serious they actually are or if this is just another publicitiy stunt. (Google’s track record in terms of complying with repressive and nosey government censorship regulations isn’t exactly unblemished, to put it mildly, vide China etc.)
However, should they really have the balls to pull it off with no holds barred, you’ll find us at Google’s side for a change. Not holding my breath, but more than happy to be surprised…
Further coverage:
- Heise online: Google droht mit Schließung von Mail-Dienst in Deutschland (in German)
- Google Blogoscoped: Google Threatens to Close German Gmail Due to Local Law
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[ Keywords: Big Brother, Google, GoogleMail, mail ]
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