Angela Merkel proposes European communications network to improve data protection
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested that European countries should develop a communications network as part of an effort to improve data protection.
The plans would form part of a strategy to counter the mass surveillance conducted by the US National Security Agency (NSA), GCHQ and other nations' security services.
The plans represent the first actions taken by Germany after documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden showed that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had his calls routinely monitored by the NSA. Merkel herself was also subject to phone tapping continuously since election in 2002, which only ended last year when she started using a BlackBerry. It has also been reported that MI6 had a ‘secret listening post' in the British embassy in Berlin.
