Germans are giving up their American email providers and opting for German-based email companies in the wake of the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance scandal, reports Spiegel.
German web hosting company 1&1, which owns email providers GMX and web.de, says it has seen a six-figure increase in new customers in just three weeks. T-Online, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, says it also has enjoyed “stronger interest” in its email plans.
Spiegel says German companies are touting the security of their data networks as being among the most secure in the world.
“The moment that the data is in the US, it will definitely be used by the NSA, and subsequently by other government agencies including the CIA, FBI, and the DEA,” Independent Center for Data Protection chief Thilo Weichert told the German publication. “If I use Google-Mail, it’s pretty certain that my data will be saved on American servers, and can then be accessed by the NSA.”
On Tuesday, Facebook said in the first half of 2013, governments sought information on over 38,000 of its users. Of those, U.S. agencies requested roughly half of all information requests.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.