US: WikiLeaks helps to sensitize USA with respect to data protection
Category: NachrichtenBy: R. Olschewski - 2B Advice GmbH - the privacy benchmark
Up to now, the United States of America has viewed the European understanding of data protection with skepticism. This did not improve after the terror attacks and the Iraq war either, since the collection of personal data in the USA actually increased during the subsequent period and the resulting pool grew ever larger.
Evidently, the risks this entailed were underestimated. This attitude might change in future. The awareness of the explosive potential of confidential documents, especially those containing personal data such as personal e-mails, is currently being honed in a drastic manner through the Internet forum WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks describes itself as a website for whistle-blowing. Whistle-blowers are people who, for altruistic reasons, make public information to disclose abuse, illegal activities or general hazards that they become aware of at their workplace. The website had already drawn attention to itself in the past with pictures of questionable military operations and thereby helped to clear up the circumstances of the deaths of two Reuter journalists in Iraq.
WikiLeaks has just placed thousands of files containing confidential data on the Internet, creating some considerable hardship for the United States. Numerous persons are identified openly. Those responsible for the site make no effort to protect the rights to privacy of those affected, and consequently individual assessments made by ambassadors or other governmental figures about well-known German politicians, including Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Westerwelle, are coming to public knowledge.
Therefore, it is even more surprising that the US Foreign Secretary has left it until now to try to manage the affairs of state using technical measures to protect her confidential data. It is said, for instance, that in future any files classified as confidential are to be configured in such a way that saving them on a USB stick or on a DVD will no longer be possible.
Businesses protect themselves against unwanted publication by creating contact points in the organization early on that allow whistle-blowers to notify abuses and inappropriate behavior without bringing them to the attention of the wider public. In addition, the possibilities of accessing and copying files should already be restricted by technical means so that the transmission of thousands of documents is not possible.
Sources:
www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article11279455/USA-erhoehen-juristischen-Druck-auf-Julian-Assange.html
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