MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Germany’s domestic security agency has received a spy software from the US National Security Agency (NSA) on terms of data exchange, local media reported Wednesday, citing a previously unpublished document revealed by Edward Snowden.
According to a document reviewed by Zeit newspaper, Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) agreed in April 2013 to provide the NSA with data relevant to its activities in exchange for a highly effective spy software program XKeyscore.
"The BfV will: To the maximum extent possible share all data relevant to NSA's mission," the newspaper quoted the documents as saying.
According to Zeit, the version of XKeyscore transferred to the BfV was unable to collect data on the Internet, but instead it has allowed the agency to promptly analyze massive data volumes already collected automatically.
According to Zeit, Germany’s data protection commissioner as well as the Parliamentary Control Panel, a BfV supervisory institution, have not been fully aware of the agreement, which makes it a politically and legally sensitive issue.
The BfV argued that information obtained with the help of XKeyscore could be transferred to the NSA without violating German law.
In 2013, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden made available documents detailing long-term US intelligence service data collection in European and many other targets around the world.
The German Parliamentary Committee investigating the NSA spying scandal was set up in March 2014 to examine the extent of the US agency's surveillance activities revealed in documents published by Snowden.
