News
By Moritz Jaeger
Germany is looking to ban the export of surveillance software to totalitarian states like Syria or Iran.
Guido Westerwelle, Germany's foreign minister, mentioned the move during a talk at the Internet and Human Rights conference, hosted by the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin last week.
During his speech Westerwelle highlighted the importance of the internet for organizing political protest, according to the German newspaper Die Zeit. However, the same sites that facilitate the co-ordination of political activism can also be infiltrated and used to track down the individuals involved, he said.
According to Westerwelle, the German government is now pushing for an EU-wide resolution that would limit the export of surveillance software.
Source: ZDNet
