Germany Getting Its Own Internet
News of the NSA has people living in North America worried, but that concern has crossed the pond to Europe as well. Today, Germany is calling for its own Internet. The demand for a Germany Internet that is not accessible by outside governments has come after some intelligence that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone had been monitored by outsiders.
Deutsche Telekom is behind the proposed spying information, and the company is also the reason why headlines today are screaming “Germany Wants Its Own Internet.” Some are chalking this up to a marketing ploy (a very dangerous one), while others fully believe that the U.S. is more than capable of tapping into phones, computers, and the Internet at large.
The Impact on Hosting
As more and more governments question the United State's level of spying and intelligence, many web hosting companies based in the U.S. are at risk. As it stands, any company that's based in the U.S. is subject to government investigation. Even if a website is based, for example, in Germany and hosted in the U.S., information about that site can be gained if the government requests it.
For obvious reasons, this concerns a lot of people considering working with U.S.-based hosting companies. If your site details could be hacked into by government agents, you may not be so quick to sign up with a cheap hosting company in the U.S. either, right? Well, this is the present problem.
A Global Impact
On the other hand, this is not the first time that Deutsche Telekom has tried to market “German-based” services. This past August, Deutsche Telekom created an email service called ‘E-mail Made In Germany' that creates encrypted emails and sends those messages through domestic servers. To many, this sounds like a secure option, but analysts today warn that this is, in fact, a communications company seeking to gain clients from recent skepticism.
Regardless, people living in countries outside of the U.S. are starting to call for Internets based in different countries. This would make the Internet less of a world wide web, and more of a country-specific web. As peculiar as that sounds, it may be the only way for a country to ensure that its citizens are safe from outside prying eyes. Presently, most hosting companies and websites are based in the U.S., and that means that the U.S. Government has free reign over what information is kept private.
Germany Getting Its Own Internet: Should You Be Concerned?
As far as your own information goes, you don't need to panic too much. Governments aren't interested in your information unless you are doing something that's completely illegal. Otherwise, your details blend into the crowd. But, still, the possibility of a government agency tapping into your private life through the Internet is troublesome.
Will Germany get its own Internet? That's not likely to happen, but it is a concept worth considering. At the time of this writing, Germany isn't the only country thinking of a separate Internet either. What do you think about all of this NSA mess?
