14 DAY TRIAL // Germany and France could be on their way to create a European communication network to avoid emails and other type of data passing through the United States, if Angela Merkel has her way.
The German Chancellor announced that she would talk to French President Francois Holland about this idea as she prepares to go on a formal visit to France.
Following the NSA scandal, the fact that Germany and France are eager to discuss options to avoid NSA’s watchful eye isn’t exactly surprising, especially since it’s been revealed that Angela Merkel was a direct target of the intelligence agency.
Merkel also dissed on Google and Facebook for basing their operations in countries that have such low safeguards on data protection while still being active in Germany and other such nations that have set high data protection.
“Above all, we’ll talk about how European providers can offer security for our citizens, so that one shouldn’t have to send emails and other information across the Atlantic. Rather one could build up a communication network inside Europe,” Merkel said in her weekly podcast.
Discussions that Europe should do more to protect its citizens from snooping agencies such as the NSA have been going on for months and the European Union has been conducting an inquiry into the situation.
Several nations, including France, have proposed that the United States should be penalized for breaching privacy laws in Europe by canceling the multi-billion dollar trade talks.
Germany has been pushing for a no-spying agreement with Washington, but there’s been no response from across the pond so far, a signal that the United States doesn’t really look forward to put a stop to its spying practices.
A recent announcement coming from US president Barack Obama regarding NSA reforms didn’t really make anyone happy since the modifications he announced were superficial.