Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a strong rebuke to the United States and Britain on Wednesday over sweeping surveillance and spying activities reported by fugitive IT contractor Edward Snowden.
Industrial espionage by the US National Security Agency (NSA) in Germany is an open secret, whistleblower Edward Snowden said in a television interview on Sunday night.
German reaction to President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated speech on Friday on the future of NSA spying has veered from skepticism to veiled threats with politicians suggesting legal action is a possibility.
Germany's biggest telecoms firms have promoted a national email network after the US National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted millions of emails via international hubs. But how realistic are dreams of a German-only system?
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.
Whistleblower Edward Snowden may recieve an honorary doctorate from a German university for his role in exposing the NSA spying scandal, after a dean praised his courage and civil disobedience.
German MPs admitted on Wednesday they could not guarantee the safety of US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden should he come to Berlin to answer their questions, and have suggested he be questioned in Russia instead.
US whistle blower Edward Snowden is free to speak with whoever he chooses, including foreign authorities, a Kremlin
spokesman said on Saturday, after the US fugitive said he was ready to help a German probe into US spying.
UPDATE: The German government said it was willing to speak with fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden after an MP who met him in secret on Thursday delivered an open letter addressed to German authorities.
German politicians said on Monday they wanted to call whistleblower Edward Snowden as a witness in a parliamentary investigation into US spying - and possibly grant him asylum at the same time.
A German author and fierce NSA critic has pointed to his attacks on America's mass surveillance programme as the reason behind authorities denying him entry to the United States on Monday.
The NSA spying affair did not involve millions of breaches of the law, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff said this week - and told investigating MPs that work was starting soon on a mutual promise to stop spying.
Data protection officers in Germany are calling on the European Union to suspend its "Safe Harbor" data exchange programme with the US following allegations of widespread spying, it emerged on Wednesday.
German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said he expected "straight talk" at high-level meetings in Washington Thursday on a simmering dispute over broad state surveillance.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected comparisons between US government spying and the secret police of the former East Germany. In an interview she defends the German secret service, as well as the practice of intercepting data.
Germany reacted furiously to US spy allegations which risk becoming a political hot potato for Chancellor Angela Merkel less than three months from elections.
Britain has ignored German demands to explain and justify its Tempora electronic surveillance programme, responding in just three lines to an in-depth inquiry from Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.
