Ah, the irony. It is funny to see these proposals coming out of Germany, the biggest proponent, together with France, for a EU-wide data exchange and wiretappi

Ah, the irony. It is funny to see these proposals coming out of Germany, the biggest proponent, together with France, for a EU-wide data exchange and wiretapping program codified in Schengen as article 40 [1] and SIS (Schengen Information System, police access to all national DBs). The latest update to the Schengen treaty (2005) allows the exchange of sensitive and biometric data such as DNA and fingerprints. [1] Germany and France are also the biggest pushers for data retention laws that force ISPs and other business to retain and make available all the communication metadata and some of the data of all the information exchanged through them. The governments of Germany, France and UK have also been the main shields against the pressures from the EU parliament to avoid data-sharing initiatives with the USA. It must also be noted that there seems to be a schism in Germany between the acts of the governments (pushing EU-wide anti-privacy measures) and the acts of the parliament (pushing strict pro-privacy regulations inside the German territory). [1] http://www.hri.org/docs/Schengen90/body3.html http://www.hri.org/docs/Schengen90/body3.html [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%BCm_Convention http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%BCm_Convention