The Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee of the European Parliament met on the Sept. 5, 2013 in Brussels. The discussion was titled the Inquiry of Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens.
Among other journalists, Jacob Appelbaum, a prominent Internet activist and security expert, and Jacques Follorou, a journalist for Le Monde, were invited to the hearing.
Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of The Guardian was also invited for a via video conference. All of them provided insights and findings about the topic of discussion.
Le Monde is the French newspaper that led investigation into the French External Securities Agency’s mass spying on its citizens.
The Guardian first published similar revelations about the National Security Agency’s surveillance program – PRISM based on the whistleblower Edward Snowden’s information.
Jacob Appelbaum is an independent hacker and information security expert. He has worked with WikiLeaks and is a core member of The Onion Router project, also known as TOR, a free program designed to allow users to browse the Internet anonymously.
In his first address to the European Parliament, he provided his insights into the extent of surveillance mechanisms the NSA is involved in, in the United States and beyond.
He mentioned the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Amendments Act (FAA, 2008), Section 702 under which the United States government has authority to electronically monitor Foreign Individuals.
He also mentioned technology giants like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and others who comply with the NSA in having systems piggybacked on their networks which allow surveillance of emails, social networks, search queries, etc.
Appelbaum also mentioned the Five Eyes program, better known as the Echelon program, as a nexus between the intelligence agencies of five countries including United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Australia and the U.S.
He said that these agencies survey civilian Internet traffic and store it in various degrees, ranging from meta-data storage to actual data storage for up to three days. These agencies then exchange information about a hierarchical basis.
Appelbaum stated that these activities are highly unethical.
Appelbaum also disclosed his personal experiences with these agencies, which included unauthorized searches of his apartments, detainment at airports, denial of access to lawyers and even the ability to use the restroom.
“My partner woke up to find men with night vision goggles watching her sleep in her own home,” Appelbaum said.
He cited investigations by various news agencies like the Washington, the Guardian and his own experience with WikiLeaks as sources for the insights he provided to the European Parliament.
Appelbaum condemned President Barack Obama’s statement, “Don’t worry, We don’t spy on Americans” as insulting to all the members of the EU as that meant everyone who is not an American was a fair candidate for surveillance.
A general agreement on the seriousness of the issue was reached. The LIBE committee meets again on Sept. 24, 2013, and the proceedings will be streamed on the Internet.
