Customer Protection made in Europe

Posted on 03/05/2009 by Dyrathror
Surfing on a website with cookie agreement check

In Europe an EU directive has to be implemented in all member countries as law according to the subsidiarity principle of the European Union. Unfortunately the work of the European Parliament often doesn’t make it into the news so that the public is involved early enough to be able to take part in the discussion of interesting matters.

This interesting part of the democratic process in Europe should be discussed separately one day. At the moment, as I just read on Spiegel Online, they are reworking article 5 of the directive for privacy and electronic communication. The idea is to implement a mandatory procedure of agreement for the storage of each cookie which a website wants to store on your computer.

On the positive side the idea to protect the internet user from being tracked by services like Phorm against its will is a good intention! But in the ideas for a technical solution of this problem the politicians again show their lack of technical understanding. The idea to pop up a windows with the terms and conditions you have to agree to, so that the website is allowed to store a cookie on your computer, will lead to the situation that most users will allow all cookies in general to be stored instead of sensibilizing the user to the problematic that their surfing behaviour can be tracked by missuse of cookies.

The problem is a very delicate one because on one hand the user wants the service which is provided by the use of cookies like that he is remembered by websites, be it for a login into a forum or a personalized advertisment when surfing on amazon. On the other hand no user will agree to work on several Pop-Ups for each page he is visiting.

What I don’t understand is that politicians increasingly search for technical solutions for legal problems. My discomfort is that within this process there seem to be no technical skilled professionals involved. Therefore these decisions may lead to more damage then good. And please keep in mind that legal problems cannot be solved with technical measures.

Posted in Misc, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Mrs. Aigner, it seems I misunderstood your intentions!

Posted on 28/04/2009 by Dyrathror

Two weeks ago in my article What is “green” in Green Gene Technology I still praised the decision from germanys Minister of Agriculture, Mrs. Ilse Aigner, for her change of opinion which lead to the ban of the genetically altered Monsanto MON 810 corn. Now I have to read in Spiegel Online’s article CSU-Ministerin Aigner düpiert Seehofer that she allowed BASF, a german company, to sow the genetically altered potato Amflora.

It seem that I missunderstood Mrs. Aigners intentions thoroughly! Instead of getting her act together towards a natural agriculture which is able to supply us and our children with healthy food also in the future it seems that it is all only about politics and money, as always!

Mrs. Aigner, is this your contribution to the german economy in times of the crisis or is it already part of your election campaign for the upcoming election in Germany or are there other economic reasons which lead to this decision?

Posted in Misc, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

What Germany should have learned from the 60’s !

Posted on 27/04/2009 by Dyrathror

The 60’s of the last century have been a time of breakup in Germany and many other countries in the world. Young people didn’t agree any more with the moral and political ideas of the elder generation and cried for radical changes in the society.

In my eyes this was only natural regarding that they were born after the second world war in a fast changing time with nearly overwhelming progress in natural but also social sciences which has left them with the feeling that their parent generation was left far behind in its understanding of the new generation, which has perhaps in fact been so.

474px-raf-logosvg.png

In this time in germany the young political activists gathered together in the APO (Außerparlamentarische Opposition) a political opposition apart from the normal circus of political parties, elections and government because they had the feeling that not a single of the existing parties represented their political positions. The reaction of the establishment was high pressure and control of the activists by police forces and other measures. This extreme course of action from the authorities split the APO and the sympathisers in their surrounding into two parts. The majority could be silenced and later found themselves in other activities and finally a political home in the Green Party but a minority was driven into the political underground which established the base for the RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion) a terror organisation which threw her dark shadow over Germany from the 70’s up into the 90’s.

When I read the articles about the new laws for control and law enforcement in Germany which are against all democratic and federalistic rules as you can read in the latest articles on netzpolitik.org (Warum wir dem BKA nicht vertrauen können und was das mit dem Föderalismus zu tun hat) which describes why the BKA laws are against the german federal constitution and from Jens Scholz Warum es um Zensur geht which analyses why the new anti child pornography law is not established to fight against child pornography, as it is not the right instrument for this goal anyway, but only to establish a control infrastructure in the german part of the internet, I have to ask myself:

Is there not a single politician in Germany who has learned anything from the german History?

Before you go and start to criminalise our youth which grew up with technology as internet, handy, copies of music and films in original quality … only because you don’t understand them and get yourself heared by them, you should be exchanged by a younger generation of politicians as fast as possible! You cannot put everyone in germany under suspect of crime without thinking that this will not have far reaching consequences for our future.

Posted in Misc, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Germany and China in opposite directions

Posted on 23/04/2009 by Dyrathror

It seems that Germany and China are going in opposite directions when it comes to the freedom of their people.

While China is willing, at least according do their communiques, that they want to strengthen the human rights in their country which also includes the right of information, the German Government is just establishing a law Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Bekaempfung der Kinderpornographie in Kommunikationsnetzen which allows the police to establish internet filters within their own discretion and without the normal rule of right controls of a democracy.

All articles in the german press and on politically active blogs like Bundesregierung beschließt Zensurgesetz and Gesetzesentwurf zu Web-Sperren beschlossen are shocked and ask themselves if the politicians are really ruling the country unhampered by any knowledge of which consequences the technical measures they are establishing will have for the future. I am sure that this will not only cut back the democratic rights of the internet users in germany but also have an effect on the economy, as all control measures which were established in the past have shown.

German politicians are always on a high horse when they look down upon the chinese governments dealing with their population when it comes to human rights and personal freedom. I think it is high time for them to step down!

Posted in Misc, Politics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Catch 22

Posted on 21/04/2009 by Dyrathror

Does anybody recall the novel Catch 22 from Joseph Heller? One of the main characters in the novel is the army B-25 bombardier Yossarian who tries to escape the war by playing crazy which is the reason why he is found to be perfectly healthy by the doctors and qualified to attend the war.

In one word:

Within the book, “Catch-22” is a military rule, the self-contradictory circular logic that, for example, prevents anyone from avoiding combat missions.

Why do I refer to this book?

In Germany the authorities are exactly playing a Catch 22 against all internet users!

With the argument to fight against child pornography german authorities forced the biggest internet providers in germany to sign a contract according to which they have to establish internet filters according to a list from the german BKA (highest police in germany) as stated in BKA filtert das Web on Spiegel Online. As everybody in this circus knows, all arguments why these measures are not leading to the desired results and are therefore only duped to establish a control mechanism can be read in the article Die Argumente für Kinderporno-Sperren laufen ins Leere.

Now the content of a draft of the bill for the fight against child pornography is published in Kinderporno-Sperren: Provider sollen Nutzerzugriffe loggen dürfen. Further thoughts about this subject are expressed in Zensursula: Gesetzentwurf am Mittwoch & Gedanken zur medialen Wahrnehmung.

The Catch 22 in this is: Not only the criminal content is targeted in this new law but also the filter lists are secret because the content of the domains on these lists is criminal and because the filter lists are secret nobody is allowed to check if the content which shall be filtered is really about child pornography because as soon as you try to check the doing of the BKA you are a criminal too!

To go further, the internet providers are allowed to store all connection data concerning the domains on these lists which means when you are stumbling on such a website, automatically you are under suspicion to be a criminal.

The german constitution stipulates the separation of executive, judicial power and legislation. This means that normally measures which effect the basic law of the people in Germany cannot be decreed by the police without the agreement of a judge. Now the basic law of information and free communication can be restricted by the police without control by the judicial powers or anybody else! This especially because only the police decides about which domain is set on its list. In my eyes this is a violation of the german constitution!

Please keep in mind:

  • The filtering of the internet does not prevent a single case of child abuse!
  • The filtering of the internet does not erase the criminal content!

To make this clear, I am the first one to fight against child pornography or abuse for I have children on my own! Therefore it is even more horrible for me that this argumentation is used to suppress the opposition against establishing internet control mechanisms.

Sometimes I ask myself if in the fight for a political position nowadays everything is allowed because in my eyes a major part of all this is already the fight for the next election.

Posted in Misc, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment