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by tptacek
3533 days ago
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Respectfully, this is like 7 paragraphs of stuff we already know we don't disagree about, followed by the incoherent position that foreign spying is only acceptable when the citizenry of the foreign target agrees with it. You can have an intellectually coherent position against foreign spying entirely. I'll point out the downsides of that position, but I won't tell you your argument is invalid. But don't pretend. Either be against spying, own the potential downsides, and/or argue that those downsides don't matter, or accept that spying is coercive --- coercion is built into the concept, which is why we have the special word "spying". BTW: Merkel authorized and the German NBD participated in SIGINT surveillance of Austria, is why I pulled that particular name out of my hat. Austria is interesting exactly because nobody would expect that particular spying target inside of Europe. |
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Foreign spying on citizens of another country is not ok, period.
Domestic wiretaps/monitoring and so on are acceptable if and only if a judge signs off on it.
Governments spying on each other is acceptable as long as it does not devolve into spying on the rest of the citizens of that country wholesale.
In other words: ordinary citizens should be left alone, if you decide to join the government you're raising the stakes and you should be aware that you will become a 'person of interest' for many other parties.
I hope this clear up my position in a way that there is no room for mis-interpretation.
I'm sure EU governments spy on each other and I'm also sure that EU government officials are aware of this particular fact if only because they themselves are also engaging in it, so nothing of value was communicated with that particular example.