German investigators intercepted about 28,000 phone calls in 2013: Report
A recent report says German investigators intercepted nearly 28,000 telephone and internet communications during the course of 2013 under the pretext of looking for evidence against suspects.
According to the report, published by the German-language tabloid Bild on Saturday, a total of 19,670 mobile phone, 5,033 computer and 3,271 landline communications were intercepted last year.
The report, citing data from the German Justice Ministry, further noted that most of the judicial cases for which interceptions took place involved gang-related theft (2,047 cases), murder (1,863 cases) and fraud (1,745 cases).
Moreover, German authorities demanded telecommunications data, such as location information, in a further 20,923 cases.
The report comes amid increasing concern among Germans about their privacy and surveillance following revelations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been collecting German citizens’ private data.
There are reports that Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, gathers 220 million pieces of metadata from foreign phone calls and text messages per day, and later relays them to top US spy agencies, particularly the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
BND agents are instructed not to reveal details on how much data has been collected by the spy agency unless asked direct questions by the country’s parliamentary Oversight Committee.
Although it is not clear how the BND acquires such huge amount of data, Germany’s Bundestag parliamentary committee probing the NSA surveillance has established that the BND taps satellite communications and internet cables to obtain the massive records.
The metadata reportedly can reveal an individual’s movements and contacts and even make predictions of a surveillance subject’s potential pattern of behavior. For instance, the NSA spy agency exploits metadata to establish targets for its assassination drone strikes against what it regards as potential terror suspects.
MP/HJL/SS
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