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During the past 24 hours, as many as four German state governments have admitted to using spyware against their citizens.

 

Recent European and other press reports have clarified the situation with the Chaos Computer Club's discovery of a supposed German Government spyware package which iTWire reported yesterday.

Yes it was the Government's package and (thus far) four states (Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg, Brandenburg and Lower Saxony) have admitted to using it; but the Federal Government continues to deny any use.

Despite a very clear Constitutional Court ruling banning any spyware package with the abilities described by CCC, various authorities have claimed that the states have been operating entirely within the law.  Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, for instance claimed that he saw no problem with the use of the Trojan to track down criminals.

Except the part where it was declared illegal by the Constitutional Court, of course.

Federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger has asked for an investigation; "Trying to play down or trivialise the matter won't do," she said. "The citizen, in both the public and private spheres, must be protected from snooping through strict state control mechanisms."

WikiLeaks is also involved.

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David Heath

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David Heath has over 25 years experience in the IT industry, specializing particularly in customer support, security and computer networking. Heath has worked previously as head of IT for The Television Shopping Network, as the network and desktop manager for Armstrong Jones (a major funds management organization) and has consulted into various Australian federal government agencies (including the Department of Immigration and the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence). He has also served on various state, national and international committees for Novell Users International; he was also the organising chairman for the 1994 Novell Users' Conference in Brisbane. Heath is currently employed as an Instructional Designer, building technical training courses for industrial process control systems.

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