German’s intelligence services collects everyday 220 million items of information from listening to satellite communications and Internet
On the 2nd of February, a German News Website (ZEIT Online) published that the German Intelligence Services (BND) collects around 220 millions pieces of information every day, but not in a focused way. Indeed they practice extensive surveillance such as the one practiced by the NSA or the CIA. Indeed, it seems that extensive surveillance replaced individual surveillance in Germany following the events of September 2001.
The author noted that times are changing also in the field of intelligences and surveillance and that therefore intelligence agencies are now engaged in collecting what we called “Metadata”. Because metadata include an enormous amounts of data , they can be analyzed and permit to create cross-reference between the information and the people.
How does that work? The information is extracted from our digital fingerprint, – including information that we removed or deleted- such as location, which they are able to detect by pinpointing the mobile devices at our disposal. This information is collected and used as one of the most important sources for eliminations operation of the US against Islamic terrorist groups throughout the Middle East.
The Newspaper analyzed secrets documents of the BND, which included informations concerning 220 million items of information collected by the organization every day. These information were obtained by listening to satellite communication and the Internet. These information are kept for a period from one week to six months depending on the characteristics of the information. The parameter determining when the information should be kept and the place where the information is kept are still unknown.
This post is also available in:
עברית 
Italiano 
Română 
Español 
Türkçe