Mass protest in Germany against US intelligence surveillance

US whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed recently that the National Security Agency programme had cooperated with German intelligence services in the programme.

The German government denied that the electronic communications of citizens and politicians were being tracked on a massive scale in the country where privacy laws are among the world's strictest.

German activists, including the Pirate Party and the Occupy movement, formed an alliance to host the demonstrations under the slogan "Stop Watching Us."

Demonstrations were organized in 30 cities and towns. Around 2,000 people took part in the demonstration in the port city of Hamburg.

In Frankfurt, where organizers had expected 5,000 demonstrators, police gave an initial estimate of 850. Read more: http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_07_27/Mass-protest-in-Germany-against-US-intelligence-surveillance-5818/

A handout picture shows a projection of text reading 'United Stasi of America' on the building of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, July 8, 2013. Stasi was a secret police in the former GDR.

Credit: Reuters/Lichtkuenstler Oliver Bienkowski, Caveman Guerilla Marketing Agentur GmbH/Handout via Reuters

Actually, the US has by Western standards some of the worst privacy.

Privacy in America only applies to sexual and reproductive so called rights. I could keep knowledge of the STD I caught from a prostitute from my wife, my wife can keep her sterilization from me, my daughter can keep her abortion from both parents, and my coworkers will never know I have HIV.

BUT I will get X-rayed at the airport, DHS drives around X-raying homes and cars, there is video surveillance everywhere, every hick police department has a drone soon, your email is read, you have check points pulling you over without probable cause, a cop can talk to your under age child at school without parental consent, drug testing at work without probable cause, polygraphs for many government jobs, the government has mandates requiring reporting on you (CDC NIH), warrant-less searches, government data bases that are all connected... Where do you live? You have NO privacy from government in the US and a Constitution which was written exactly to curtail these overreaches and the obvious dangers this poses has been interpreted to apply/mean privacy from our friends, neighbors, family and coworkers.

Norway, Germany, Sweden... all have tougher privacy standards than the US regulatory environment.

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