German Bundestag Passes Whistleblower Protection Act • Hacker News Board

Re: German Bundestag Passes Whistleblower Protection Act

#41

Post by ls15 » Mon, Jan 02, 2023, 6:12 PM UTC

zirgs wrote: post #38

ls15 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That the U.S. selfishly sees non-Americans as unprotected game is nothing that the EU has to respect.

That's how international espionage works. Everyone is spying on everyone else. Do you think that there aren't any European spies in the USA?

Maybe... they haven't told me. I am also not sure if the EU is running large scale wiretapping operations in the U.S. and I think that the U.S. would react in a drastic way if they learned about it - as opposed to the EU.

What I do know: U.S. citizens are protected by GDPR when they are in the EU.

Re: German Bundestag Passes Whistleblower Protection Act

#42

Post by zirgs » Mon, Jan 02, 2023, 11:10 PM UTC

ls15 wrote: post #41

zirgs wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how international espionage works. Everyone is spying on everyone else. Do you think that there aren't any European spies in the USA?

Maybe... they haven't told me. I am also not sure if the EU is running large scale wiretapping operations in the U.S. and I think that the U.S. would react in a drastic way if they learned about it - as opposed to the EU. What I do know: U.S. citizens are protected by GDPR when they are in the EU.

Not sure about large scale operations, but it would be stupid for them not to gather any intelligence in the USA. Especially when their security depends on the US.

Foreign intelligence agencies could not do much if they had to follow all the foreign laws. It's their job to gather intelligence abroad. What do you expect them to do? "Oh shit - this Russian law forbids us from gathering intelligence in Russia - we'd better stop and go home"?

Snowden's revelations didn't surprise me in the slightest. I already knew that US intelligence agencies could spy on me if they wanted to.

And I don't give a crap if they spy on US citizens, because I'm not an American.

Re: German Bundestag Passes Whistleblower Protection Act

#43

Post by graderjs » Tue, Jan 03, 2023, 3:55 AM UTC

Darge wrote: post #39

graderjs wrote: post #35

Honestly sort of depressing how everything follows US policy: NDAA contained whistleblower-protection language--and we have to be proud of it. Couldn't other "western liberal democracies" just initiate their own policy initiatives--sounds like I'm denigrating US--I'm not--but couldn't other countries initiate their own first, why have to wait and play second fiddle? Always like this. US passes some law, then you see,…

Can you provide more examples of the EU following US? I think there are plenty of examples of the opposite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect

It's a feeling built up over years, from a gestalt experience... I wasn't keeping notes. I don't know...some places I might look to research that further are: copyright law / DMCA, encryption law and export regulation, COVID policies, country / company blacklists, crypto law -- but without finding all the little moments in my past where I saw such and such a news happen in USA, then later on such and such similar legislation / policy happen in EU, in East Asian democracies, in Indo Pacific...I couldn't provide you who is exactly on that list for sure. Just a feeling it's there tho. I'm sure it seems probably not very convincing to you...that's OK, you have your own experience and memory. This is mine.

Thanks for the link. Interesting. Cross-pollination maybe? :) Have a good one!