US contracting firms, including Cisco, which manages most of Germany’s armed forces’ information, must be banned from passing secret data to the US intelligence agencies, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives Hans-Peter Uhl has demanded.
The spokesman said that Cisco needs to be contractually prohibited from sending sensitive material to the US agencies.
Citing reports from German news magazine Focus, Reuters noted that the German government sought to keep a vigilant eye on the US contracting firms henceforth in future.
Earlier, the NSA had reportedly monitored phones and emails in Europe, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone. The snooping revelations led to Germany deciding to create its own Internet.
However, the US President Barack Obama made an effort to compromise with the Germans on questions regarding snooping activities by the NSA, saying some verifications were necessary on the system.