Salon.com > EU

NSA reportedly spied on European Union offices

Sat, 29 Jun 2013 20:00:00 +0000

As the fate of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden hangs in the balance, more revelations exposing the breadth and depth of America's classified surveillance program continue to emerge. On Saturday, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that a "top secret" document, obtained by Snowden, reveals that the secretive government agency spied on European Union offices.

From Der Spiegel, translated to English by Google Translate:

In a "top secret" classified NSA paper in September 2010 describes how the intelligence attacked the EU's diplomatic representation in Washington.

Thus, not only bugs were installed in the building in the U.S. capital, but also the internal computer network was infiltrated. In this way, the Americans not only get access to meetings at the premises of the EU , but also to e-mails and internal documents on the computers.

EU regulators to take legal action over Google privacy

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:38:00 +0000

Privacy regulators in six EU countries -- the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands -- could seek to punish Google with fines for refusing to backtrack on changes made to its privacy policy last year, which, according to an investigation, contravene EU laws.

The regulators announced plans to take legal action Tuesday. But the threat of fines will mean little to the Internet giant. As the Guardian noted, two threatened sets of fines (one up to $500,000, one up to $300,000) amount to the money generated by Google in sales every 10 minutes. Via the Guardian:

E.U. bans cosmetics with animal-tested ingredients

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:37:00 +0000

The European Union Monday announced a ban on the import and sale of cosmetics containing ingredients tested on animals. The move by regulators builds on legislation already in place that bans the import and sale in the E.U. of cosmetics that, as finished products, were tested on animals.

Animal rights groups have lauded the move and Tonio Borg, the E.U.'s top official on health and consumer issues, said "This is a great opportunity for Europe to set an example of responsible innovation in cosmetics without any compromise on consumer safety."

Neither the U.S. nor Asian markets have similar bans in place and, as the New York Times noted, "the global divergence in safety rules could also mean that companies sell the same product globally, but market one version for countries like China backed up by safety evidence from animal tests, and another version for Europe backed up by evidence from alternative tests."

Europe sees “grave risks” from US spy law

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:53:00 +0000

Concerns about the newly-renewed Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Amendments Act (FISA) in this country have focused on how the government’s program of warrantless wiretapping affects Americans. But a new report [pdf] produced for the European Parliament illustrates that FISA has raised serious concerns about encroachment on Europeans' privacy.

According to the report, FISA poses a “much graver risk to EU data sovereignty than other laws hitherto considered by EU policy-makers.” The report, produced by the Centre for the Study of Conflicts, Liberty and Security, sees the greatest threat in U.S. government surveillance of information stored in U.S.-owned public data clouds, like those of Facebook or Google.

In the final throes of 2012, Congress passed a five-year extension to the FISA 2008 amendments, which allow the government to monitor phone calls and emails in and out of the country without obtaining a warrant. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) raised objections, noting the disturbing fact that no one could specify just how many Americans have been caught up in the government's spying dragnet. Wyden's attempt to force greater disclosure with a proposed amendment to FISA failed in the Senate.