Public concerns

Germany's Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger called on the federal and state governments to launch a joint investigation into the matter, The German broadcaster Seutsche Welle reported on Oct. 11.

"The citizen, in both the public and private spheres, must be protected from snooping through strict state control mechanisms," Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger alleged.

But this scandal still stirred massive public concern in Germany.

"It would be a very grave incident and clearly against the law should the allegation be accurate," Wolfgang Bosbach, chairman of the German parliament’s interior-affairs committee, was quoted by Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio as saying.

Marco Buschmann, a free Democrat member of German parliament, told GlobalPost that while suspected criminals and terrorists need to be investigated, people’s freedoms also need to be protected.

"That includes the freedom to use my computer without worrying that it could potentially be spied on, whether by the state or by criminals," Buschmann added.

"This example shows how dangerous it is when one allows the state the possibility of such wide-ranging invasions of privacy. When one has such a tool then the temptation is too great to overstep the limits," Privacy attorney Starostik was quoted as saying by GlobalPost.

"The (government) should put an end to the ever growing expansion of computer spying that has been getting out of hand in recent years, and finally come up with an unambiguous definition for the digital privacy sphere and with a way to protect it effectively," the Chaos Computer Club said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, for too long the (government) has been guided by demands for technical surveillance, not by values like freedom or the question of how to protect our values in a digital world," the club added.