25,000 march for more privacy from authorities

Published: 13 Sep 09 13:34 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090913-21897.html

Around 25,000 people demonstrated against increasing monitoring and data gathering by authorities and companies on Saturday in Berlin.

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Organisers of the demonstration, under the motto "Freedom rather than fear – stop the surveillance madness," said it was a success and should serve to show politicians how many people care about their privacy.

A coalition of 167 organisations - including political parties, trade unions, professional associations, capitalism critics Attac, and the Chaos Computer Club - had called on people to demonstrate against laws enabling some internet sites to be closed down and data to be held for no immediate reason.

Head of the service industry trade union Verdi Frank Bsirske said at the rally that surveillance and spying had become reality for many workers because state, industry and employment world had become obsessed with control.

He named recent scandals at Lidl, Schlecker, Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Bahn, where he said it had been demonstrated that in some upper echelons of business, there was no longer any sense of right and wrong.

State data protection representative from the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Thilo Weichert, told the crowd that the authorities must act more professionally when pursuing criminals using the internet.

“The population needs freedom of information and opinion, not total control,” he said.

The demonstration was set to be part of a series held around the world.

DDP/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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Your comments about this article:

14:21 September 13, 2009 by habitual_line_stepper

I couldn't care less if the government looks at what I'm doing online because I have nothing to hide. I don't care if I'm watched with surveillance cameras unless it is in a bathroom/dressing room. There are more important things to worry about. If you have nothing to hide, who cares if you're being watched? Personal freedoms are violated in many other ways every day. I have a right not to breathe smokers' nasty cigarette smoke, but the smoking ban isn't enforced. I have a right not to have to step around dog crap and broken glass all over the street, but that's not enforced either. I have a right not to be subjected to grown men urinating out in the open in public. But I've seen police pass right by guys who are doing just that. No one is going to march about any of this. No one needs to be marching about online and surveillance either. If you're not doing anything you are ashamed of, don't worry about being watched.

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15:15 September 13, 2009 by Somnia

habitual_line_stepper: You would have enjoyed former DRR. :-)

"Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither." - Benjamin Franklin

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23:23 September 13, 2009 by wxman

We had a little demonstration here yesterday as well, insisting the government get out of our lives and wallets. I think there may have been a few more than 25K, more on the order of 1-2M. Still, good for you. Keep it up.

Report abuse »

02:25 September 14, 2009 by lynx

Who monitors the data gathering authorities and companies?

I don´t buy the mantra of -If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?

It´s based on the false premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It's not.

Even if you aren't doing anything wrong, those in power get to define what's wrong, and they keep changing the definition .

Monitor someone long enough, and you'll find something to arrest or just blackmail with.

Report abuse »

13:55 September 14, 2009 by Portnoy

Or, alternately lynx, they change the laws about what and what isn't illegal.

See also the beating a cop doled out at the rally. Staatsmacht indeed.

And, wxman, don't be a tool: everyone at the privacy rally had a right and access to the healthcare everyone in the first world deserves. At your little rally, the government was dipping in your pocketbook to fund an illegal war and a questionable bank bailout while people go without the coverage they deserve.

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