German-Foreign-Policy newsletter@german-foreign-policy.com
Newsletter 2008/05/27 - Spy Culture
BONN (Own report) - Within a few weeks, another German company expanding abroad, the Deutsche Telekom, has been accused of engaging in illegal spying practices. This enterprise, in which the state is still a shareholder, has been spying on its own personnel as well as journalists and even possibly placed foreign shareholders "under surveillance," according to press accounts. The Telekom accessed telecommunications data for which even police investigators would have needed a court order. Recently the discount food chain Lidl, was criticized for its wide-scale spying on its personnel. It was made public that the Siemens Corp. in Munich is aiding German intelligence agencies in wiretapping actions against its clients. The various spy scandals extend beyond domestic significance, because these companies are accelerating their foreign expansion, thereby becoming more
influential in applying these methods. Siemens has subsidiaries in 190 countries around the world, Lidl has twice as many stores abroad as it has inside Germany. The Telekom, which is cooperating in a "security partnership" with German government repressive agencies, is targeting new acquisitions and seeking to become the world market leader in telecommunications.
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