Newsletter 2008/05/27 - Spy Culture
BONN (Own report) - Within a few weeks, another German company
expanding abroad, the Deutsche Telekom, has been accused of engaging
in illegal spying practices. This enterprise, in which the state is
still a shareholder, has been spying on its own personnel as well as
journalists and even possibly placed foreign shareholders "under
surveillance," according to press accounts. The Telekom accessed
telecommunications data for which even police investigators would have
needed a court order. Recently the discount food chain Lidl, was
criticized for its wide-scale spying on its personnel. It was made
public that the Siemens Corp. in Munich is aiding German intelligence
agencies in wiretapping actions against its clients. The various spy
scandals extend beyond domestic significance, because these companies
are accelerating their foreign expansion, thereby becoming more
influential in applying these methods. Siemens has subsidiaries in 190
countries around the world, Lidl has twice as many stores abroad as it
has inside Germany. The Telekom, which is cooperating in a "security
partnership" with German government repressive agencies, is targeting
new acquisitions and seeking to become the world market leader in
telecommunications.
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