Europe backs own data network

By Li Aixin Source:Global Times Published: 2014-4-24 0:38:01



 

Anti-NSA protesters hold signs that read, "Klaert endlich auf" (Elucidate now) in Berlin on October 30, 2013. Photo: CFP



 After Germany in October 2013 asked the US to explain reports that its intelligence agency monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone, the country was worried over its ally's surveillance plans. This was proved to be right when files unveiled by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in March showed Merkel and more than 100 other foreign leaders had been placed in a top-secret surveillance database hosted by the NSA.

According to the Der Spiegel reports, documents show that Britain's GCHQ intelligence service infiltrated German Internet firms while America's NSA obtained a court order to spy on Germany and collected information about the chancellor in a special database.

Merkel said in her weekly podcast to the German people in early February, "One could build up a communication network inside Europe," noting the time had come to take serious action to do more in the realm of data protection.

Changes needed

The US, where the Internet was born, has long maintained a pivotal role when it comes to its governance.

"The Internet is like the eyes of the US," Qin An, director of the China Institute of Cyberspace Strategy, told the Global Times. "When they open their eyes, they can see everything."

However, ongoing revelations about the NSA's surveillance programs have triggered questions over the US as the technological gatekeeper of the Internet.

"Everyone know that the US spies on everything on the planet. But as a US ally, the EU never said much, until Edward Snowden leaked a bunch of classified documents," Sun Keqin, a research fellow with the Institute of European Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times. Sun also noted that after Snowden, the EU, especially Germany, started to publicly complain about it for the first time.

The US government claims that the individual rights of US citizens or those of other nations may be limited by US national security concerns, especially imminent threats of international terrorism, Sebastian Harnisch, a professor of International Relations and Foreign Policy at the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg, told the Global Times by e-mail.

"Like every other country and region in the world, Germany has been developing its Internet security construction for years," Sun said, adding that Germany has imposed clear restrictions on Google taking photographs using Street View.

Besides, Germany has taken other actions such as the unveiling of National cyber security strategy in 2011, and maintaining it was "the central common challenge for state, business, and society." Germany's Cyber Defense Center also came into full operation in the same year.

The thrust of creating a European Communication Network to improve data security and dilute vast American influence over the Internet is severe political posturing, said Qin. He adds that Germany is not the only country, as a great number of sovereign states are now taking steps to keep their communications and information safe.

Schengen solution?

Merkel isn't the only national leader with data security concerns.

In this vein, telecommunications companies in Germany and France are pondering a so-called Schengen-style routing system, reported by Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, in which as much online data would be kept in Europe as possible. This would support the EU's alternatives to confront the current Internet infrastructure which is dominated by the US.

The details of this technology have not been disclosed, but there are already concerns that it would cause segmentation of world Internet.

Some worry that such a Schengen zone could raise the risk that the Internet would fragment into separate national networks.

What's more, IT expert Dominique Peterson of the Institute for Internet Security pointed out in Deutsche Welle, that Internet data, such as e-mails, are sort of like postcards. They can be read in transit by anyone who gets their fingers on them. In the end, it doesn't matter what route the packets take and what happens to them along the way.

The idea is not to be too dependent on the US so the proposal of the European Internet was an encouragement for EU digital specialists and telecommunications companies to compete with the US and building secure technological infrastructure for both business and citizens, reported worldmeets.us.

"The proposal aims at improving Germany's and Europe's negotiation position with the US on a rule-based system of transatlantic data surveillance and intelligence agency cooperation," said Sebastian Harnisch.

The US, on the other hand, also made a gesture after making a sudden announcement to give up control over the Internet's domain name system on March 14.

Naturally, people wonder whether it was a response to international anger over NSA spying. But a spokesperson from the US Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration denied that in an e-mail to the Global Times.

"We are taking this step now because the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers as an organization has matured and taken steps in recent years to improve its accountability, transparency and technical competence," said the spokesperson. "In addition, international support continues to grow for the multi stakeholder model of Internet governance."

The move advances Internet governance to the next phase, experts said, although it is widely known that digital spying will never be totally stopped, but only prevented to some extent.

"What is not up for debate is that current relations between the US and the world are on an uneven footing due to this penetrating surveillance," reported Berkeley Political Review recently.

The results of the European data network or the US partly giving up power over Internet will not be visible for years. However, Europeans hope that the EU Internet is not just a statement, but a potential way to inspire the data protection revolution.



Posted in: Europe

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