NSA Blowback: German Minister Floats US Company Ban

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/german-minister-on-eu-company-ban-for-privacy-violation-a-914824.html



German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has raised the possibility of punishing American companies who violate future European privacy rules.

NSA Blowback: German Minister Floats US Company Ban
August 05, 2013 – 01:09 PM

With the NSA spying scandal continuing to make headlines in Europe, the German Justice Minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, has raised the possibility of new, tangible measures to punish corporations that participate in American spying activities. In an interview with Die Welt, the liberal Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger called for the creation of EU-wide rules to regulate the protection of information, and said that, once those rules are in place, "United States companies that don't abide by these standards should be denied doing business in the European market."

Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said that a package of EU measures is required in order to fight "the widespread spying of foreign spy services" and that German data protection laws should be a yardstick for the rest of the European Union -- German privacy laws are considerably tighter than those of the United States and much of Europe.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich also raised corporate accountability in July, when he suggested requiring European firms to report any data they hand over to foreign countries. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, who is running for reelection in September as part of the pro-business Free Democratic Party, did not further specify which kinds of penalties she would like American companies to face, though it seems unlikely that Europe would completely ban companies like Google, which dominate the online search market, or Facebook from doing business. Both of those companies were implicated in the documents leaked by former intelligence worker Edward Snowden.

It is the latest development in a German election season that has come to be dominated by online privacy issues. Chancellor Angela Merkel has faced widespread criticism from the opposition for her handling of the NSA scandal and Peer Steinbrück, the Chancellor candidate of the opposition SPD party, recently told German television channel ZDF that Merkel should demand written assurances from the Americans they will respect German laws and interests and not engage in industrial espionage.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Deutschland Uber Alles

I do like nails in the coffin of the proposed US/EU trade agreement and for the time being this could help keep the lid screwed shut.