EXPOSED! Wunschliste des Grauens or Privacy No More!

7 days ago by Privacy Advocate • 6 min read

This week we dive into the dark waters of Germany's war on Privacy!

The world we live in is becoming more and more connected, on an almost daily basis., whilst governments are propelling us into a totally Orwellian future. And it's not just China, the latest assault on privacy is coming from Germany! Yes, the same Germany that hosts Tutanota (one of the safest and most private email providers around).

Seehofer, Germany's Minister of the Interior, has come up with a genius plan! He's pushing for users of messenger and emails services to verify with an ID, because you know nothing could possibly go wrong in giving even more information to the very people responsible for so many data breaches. Plus it makes the internet safer! The TKG (a national telecom law) is about to be renewed and the BMI (Bundesministerienium - Interior ministry) want to insist that not only will the telephone companies get your ID when you making a new contract but also that services like email and messengers will need to verify IDs. KYC and 1984 at its very core!

Additionally, although it is unclear, it would appear that internet cafés, hotspots and the like will need to do the same. No ID, no internet!

Seehofer has said in an interview recently:

“you need to enact laws so complicated that no one understands them, then you can push a lot”

Email providers like Tutanota, Mailbox and Posteo (all located in Germany) did not respond to a leaked document detailing the plans. But what could a law like this even include? I mean people could use messenger and email providers from outside Germany, but at the same time, would providers who don’t require to observe German law be deemed to be aiding German citizens in illegal activities and get themselves banned from App stores as a result and as a minimum? Would Apple need an ID for Apple products? Or at least as soon as you enable iMessage or FaceTime?

Would German providers like Tutanota stay in Germany? I highly doubt international customers will want to send an ID to open an email account.

Perhaps this will never turn out the way Seehofer hopes or maybe it is just one of the many laws that are so complicated that no one really understands them so we all adjust to as best we can!

However, Germany may persist and take the same road as China does and not only asks for IDs on everything you use, but also starts to give social behaviour points...all this inflicted on a country that always claimed to be on the side of respect for the individuals privacy...it's all just too strange. But then so is the entire idea of IDs for emails.

Falko Moors tweeted:

Falko Mohrs (@FalkoMohrs)

Das Papier aus dem @BMI_Bund kann auch als Wunschliste des Grauens durchgehen. Ich hoffe Aussage von @tj_tweets ist belastbar und entgegen Aussagen aus dem BMI hat @BMWi_Bund wirklich widersprochen. Mit @spdbt so nicht zu machen! @spdbt_netz

Nitter

In calling this the “Wunschliste des Grauens”, which translates as the 'wish list of horrors', he clearly believes that it could become a real thing and happening in Germany and that it is frightening just reading such things.

But Germany is not alone in heading off into the Orwellian hellscape! China already lives it and Australia passed a law in 2018 that authorises  encryption backdoors.

https://www.cyberscoop.com/australis-encryption-backdoors-law-passes/

Australia data encryption laws explained

Tech firms say the controversial laws could weaken overall security for users of messenger apps.

BBC NewsBBC News

And talking of Backdoors, what could possibly go wrong when you permit those? Well, recently, the incident at Microsoft shows how clever it is to trust any one company.

Microsoft Exchange mass-hack flaw known since January, around for years

As if last year’s SolarWinds hack, which also affected Microsoft, wasn’t bad enough, this year seems to be starting out terribly for the infosec industry. Microsoft Exchange Servers wor…

JC TorresSlashGear

Perhaps the airline industry is another great example:

Airline passenger data breached following “highly sophisticated attack”

SITA, which provides IT services to about 90% of the global aviation industry, has revealed that it suffered a cyber attack which exposed details of passengers from many airlines.

Graham Cluley

I, for one, am polishing up my tinfoil hat and searching for a country that still respects your privacy. If you have any thoughts on which countries do so and please send me a toot on Mastodon so we can compare notes. Perhaps even write an article on our decentralized (write.as) platform for the website and we'll push it to the  decentralize.today front page!

But right here and now, let's agree that the entourage probably shouldn’t go over tp Dubai!

https://www.pymnts.com/news/biometrics/2021/iris-scan-traveler-identification-dubai-airport/

And again, what gives anyone the right to scan your eyes. What is next, bringing sperm samples?

The fight against privacy, which is a basic human right, is real and regardless of if you are in the camp that believes you have nothing to hide, you still should not give up on the right to have a messenger or an email service that doesn't require you to submit an ID.

Let’s not forget we saw data breaches daily, and is the German government prepared to accept the blame when an email provider gets breached and German IDs are shared on the internet? I don't think so, but I also don’t think Germany goes ahead and enters into Orwell’s biggest nightmare, but maybe that is where we're going anyway, regardless of where you are in the world.

Sadly, at this stage, it appears Germany won’t stop at the ID level and that they're also pushing for DNS controls. On board are already companies like 1&1, Mobilcom-Debitel, Telefonica, die Telekom und Vodafone Deutschland, these companies will have DNS blocklists and Simulator like the 'Great Firewall of China'.  Germany will decide which websites you can visit and have all others blocked at a DNS level. This is, of course, to ensure you don’t go to any 'bad' websites (define bad?!?) or at least this is how they're trying to sell this.

Fortunately, the is a very simple solution to this, by using a private DNS server and not the one provided (pre-installed) by the telecoms provider! An easy solution is nextDNS, but there are plenty of other equally good solutions. In Germany, one of the best (and free) is dismal.de which also offer other services.

Let all this sink in, IDs, iris scan, having information about you supplied and uploaded to some random server or provider you choose to use. Maybe Facebook, what possibly can go wrong? Now combine this with deep fakes and think about it all again. Nothing to hide? We shouldn’t even be asking this question, we should have nothing to share and only give away what is absolutely necessary...that's the better approach.

Perhaps 1984 was a teaser, a warning on what we could all be seeing soon. I don’t want to live in such a world, no one should. Let’s be more decentralized, let's find ways to do just that. Decentralize from everything, make your own encryption keys and use open-source products what are not forced to give by governments to give encryption keys out.

This episode of EXPOSED! not only covers what has and is happening in Germany....it shows what could happen globally...exposing a future none of us should want!