[frotak]

Western governments have historically been allied with and have had intelligence sharing and cooperation arrangements with the U.S.

There is a general alignment of Western intelligence agencies as a cooperative group against the antagonism of China (and Russia, NK, etc)

It isn't just "everybody spies" - it's "we are actively engaged in an adversarial relationship together against this other group"

[SEJeff]

In addition, there is a "special" arrangement between 5 western allies called the "five eyes"[1]. Between the five partners, they cover internet backbone infra for much of the world.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes

[wolfgke]

Germany is not part of the Five Eyes alliance.

[tgragnato]

Nevertheless Germany is in CFBLNet, NATO, the 14 and in the Berne club...

[craftyguy]

They never claimed Germany was. The wiki link in GP doesn't list Germany as being a part of the five eyes.

[wolfgke]

> They never claimed Germany was.

The article is about Germany.

[SEJeff]

and much of the EU internet traffic, including to/from germany, goes through the UK. I'm not sure why I'm being downvoted for pointing out a relevant fact on US and western allies who share intel and basically have tapped most all of the fiber in the world via legal or illegal methods (per the snowden docs).

[wolfgke]

> and much of the EU internet traffic, including to/from germany, goes through the UK.

Indeed - and many German citizens who are interested in such topics find this concerning exactly because of Five Eyes.

My comment that Germany is not part of Five Eyes

> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19399560

refers to its grandparent

> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19398858

which I requote here:

"Western governments have historically been allied with and have had intelligence sharing and cooperation arrangements with the U.S.

There is a general alignment of Western intelligence agencies as a cooperative group against the antagonism of China (and Russia, NK, etc)

It isn't just "everybody spies" - it's "we are actively engaged in an adversarial relationship together against this other group"".

[craftyguy]

Germany does not live in a vacuum.