{"id":655,"date":"2013-10-30T20:26:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T20:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=655"},"modified":"2020-08-26T15:17:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T22:17:45","slug":"merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/","title":{"rendered":"Merkel&#8217;s Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Angela Merkel is outraged that the United States has wiretapped her phone. However, she expresses no concern for her fellow 82 million Germans, nor for her fellow 500 million Europeans that are victims of the same abuse. This shows the importance of making things personal for politicians \u2013 taking the fight to them, to break down their professional wall of comfort, if you want things to change.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When the Swedish Pirate Party was founded, it was on the insight that politicians didn\u2019t care a bit about civil liberties unless their jobs were on the line over them. Having seen the intense discussions about software patent monopolies, about the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Data_Retention_Directive\">Data Retention Directive<\/a> (a.k.a. \u201cthe put-a-governmental-tracking-beacon-on-every-citizen act\u201d), and about yet another shameless mail-order harshening of the copyright monopoly, what struck me was that everybody discussed these laws as abhorrent \u2013 everybody except the politicians. They just weren\u2019t part of the debate.<\/p>\n<p>That was very odd, as politicians are usually the <em>first<\/em> to notice when something is important to a lot of people. But there was no debate on these matters, because it would have required politicians \u2013 <em>all<\/em> existing politicians \u2013 to understand a completely new perspective of civil liberties online. (It\u2019s not rocket science, really. If a citizen\u2019s right applies to a physical letter, it <a href=\"http:\/\/falkvinge.net\/2012\/11\/06\/the-analog-letter-its-entirely-reasonable-to-demand-that-our-children-inherit-the-rights-of-our-parents\/\">applies<\/a> to that citizen\u2019s electronic communications, too. People are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smbc-comics.com\/?id=2508\">citizens<\/a> on the internet, too. Can\u2019t see why they don\u2019t get it.)<\/p>\n<p>My insight at the time was that politicians generally don\u2019t care unless you make it personal to them. They\u2019re not evil, it\u2019s just that their schedule is crammed full by bloody lobbyists already, and you\u2019re not getting onto it. At least not within the intended framework. But once I stepped out of that framework, and challenged the politicians on election day at the polls over their jobs \u2013 buy, did I get their attention!<\/p>\n<p>Merkel\u2019s reaction mirrors this insight and experience. When she learned that all of Europe\u2019s 500 million people had been illegally wiretapped, there wasn\u2019t a word. When the same was true also of her 82 million fellow Germans, not a single reaction. But when she found out that <em>her own<\/em> phone was also wiretapped, there was a complete <em>outrage!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There is an important lesson here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You can\u2019t cause social change within the framework from the outside, but you can cause change from the outside if you make it personal to the incumbent powerholders.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are many ways to make it personal without breaking the law or being creepy. One of the most overt ones is to threaten to take their jobs within the democratic system. Some of the more covert ones would be using their existing wiretapping against them, as has happened now.<\/p>\n<p>If the old politicians need a taste of their own medicine to understand why the net must remain free, then perhaps that is what it takes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Angela Merkel is outraged that the United States has wiretapped her phone. However, she expresses no concern for her fellow 82 million Germans, nor for her fellow 500 million Europeans that are victims of the same abuse. This shows the importance of making things personal for politicians \u2013 taking the fight to them, to break &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Merkel&#8217;s Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":true,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1941],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-surveillance"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Merkel&#039;s Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Angela Merkel is outraged that the United States has wiretapped her phone. However, she expresses no concern for her fellow 82 million Germans, nor for\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merkel&#039;s Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Angela Merkel is outraged that the United States has wiretapped her phone. However, she expresses no concern for her fellow 82 million Germans, nor for\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-30T20:26:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-26T22:17:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ogimage.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rick Falkvinge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@buyvpnservice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rick Falkvinge\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rick Falkvinge\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4\"},\"headline\":\"Merkel&#8217;s Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-30T20:26:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-26T22:17:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/\"},\"wordCount\":486,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"General Privacy News\",\"Surveillance\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/\",\"name\":\"Merkel's Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-30T20:26:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-26T22:17:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"Angela Merkel is outraged that the United States has wiretapped her phone. However, she expresses no concern for her fellow 82 million Germans, nor for\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Merkel&#8217;s Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"PIA\",\"description\":\"Online privacy news from around the world.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Private Internet Access\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"Private Internet Access\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/buyvpnservice\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/piavpn\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UClyJZ47Rizb1xnwuKXDI0_w\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4\",\"name\":\"Rick Falkvinge\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rick Falkvinge\"},\"description\":\"Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. Additionally, he has a tech entrepreneur background and loves good whisky and fast motorcycles.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/falkvinge.net\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/author\/rick\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Merkel's Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal","description":"Angela Merkel is outraged that the United States has wiretapped her phone. However, she expresses no concern for her fellow 82 million Germans, nor for","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Merkel's Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal","og_description":"Angela Merkel is outraged that the United States has wiretapped her phone. However, she expresses no concern for her fellow 82 million Germans, nor for","og_url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/","og_site_name":"PIA","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/","article_published_time":"2013-10-30T20:26:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-26T22:17:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ogimage.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Rick Falkvinge","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge","twitter_site":"@buyvpnservice","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rick Falkvinge","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/"},"author":{"name":"Rick Falkvinge","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4"},"headline":"Merkel&#8217;s Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal","datePublished":"2013-10-30T20:26:43+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-26T22:17:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/"},"wordCount":486,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["General Privacy News","Surveillance"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/","name":"Merkel's Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-10-30T20:26:43+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-26T22:17:45+00:00","description":"Angela Merkel is outraged that the United States has wiretapped her phone. However, she expresses no concern for her fellow 82 million Germans, nor for","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/merkels-outrage-over-wiretapping-shows-need-to-make-the-fight-personal\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Merkel&#8217;s Outrage Over Wiretapping Shows Need To Make The Fight Personal"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/","name":"PIA","description":"Online privacy news from around the world.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Private Internet Access","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png","width":1200,"height":1200,"caption":"Private Internet Access"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/","https:\/\/x.com\/buyvpnservice","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/piavpn\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UClyJZ47Rizb1xnwuKXDI0_w"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4","name":"Rick Falkvinge","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rick Falkvinge"},"description":"Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. Additionally, he has a tech entrepreneur background and loves good whisky and fast motorcycles.","sameAs":["https:\/\/falkvinge.net\/","https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge"],"url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/author\/rick\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29826,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions\/29826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}