Spies at Germany's BND foreign intelligence service snooped on the communications of friendly states' embassies and government offices, including EU members and the USA, as recently as 2013, media reports claimed on Wednesday.
Campaigners against government surveillance used the second anniversary of the first leaks by US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden to call on governments worldwide to do more to protect citizens' digital rights.
British spies have warned the government they may cut off ties with their German counterparts over a parliamentary inquiry into spying by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) collects 220 million pieces of information about foreign phone calls and SMS every day, Zeit Online reported on Friday.
The IT security team at the Chancellery in Berlin say that an employee was the target of an espionage attack through a computer virus that is associated with British and American spy agencies, it was revealed on Monday.
The US National Security Agency and British intelligence services are able to secretly access data from telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom and several other German operators, according to Der Spiegel magazine.
It was not just the US - Britain, Russia, China and North Korea were also tapping Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone, German security services believe, according to magazine reports.
The German interior minister says it is high time that the US government cast some light on the NSA's activities. But what questions still need to be asked by Germany and answered by the US? The Local has some suggestions.
British secret services are tapping a fibre-optic cable carrying data from Germany to the US, German media say, in the wake of bombshell revelations that the British are watching Europeans on a larger scale even than the Americans.
