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Martini on the record
by ERICH BRAUN
Erich Braun interviews Karsten Martini, a German Informatik student at the University of Hamburg regaring his opinion of the Patriot Act II
Hamburg, Germany, April 17, 2003 -- I was for private reasons in Hamburg, Germany and I thought I would take advantage of the situation to get a foreign opinion on the Patriot Act. I contacted an "Informatik" major, the equivalent of a computer application major in the United States. I got his name, Karsten Martini, and his phone number out of the Universities directory and called him up to set up a meeting. Mr. Martini is 26 years old and in his final semester and will be graduating after this term, good luck with your "Hausarbeit". We met on the 17th of April downtown Hamburg in a street café.
When I called him up I made sure that he knew something about the Patriot Act that was legislated in the United States as a result of September 11. He certainly had heard about it and was somewhat familiar with the Act and said it was a good thing and probably pretty effective for homeland security. He, however, questioned its effectiveness in the world of the Internet and he raised the question of the infringement of your privacy rights.
I wanted to know some more about the infringement of one's privacy and his personal opinion about it so I asked him what he thought about it. Mr. Martini pointed out that he only uses the internet and therefore is not familiar with all its regulations. Nonetheless, he said that there are limits how companies can process and transfer data in Europe and especially in Germany. The fact that the Act was legislated to prevent Terrorist attacks makes the infringement on your privacy rights a little more acceptable, he said. "They try, as far as I know, to capture terrorist activities on the Internet, thus, they are trying to protect America and up to a certain point the rest of the world. Therefore, I think government agencies should be able to observe all kinds of activities on the internet." The question that Mr. Martine raised was if it could be down on a technically basis. He pointed out the fact that it is tough to recognize from where one person is using the internet and that there are so many loopholes to get around security measures.
The USA Patriot Act was legislated relatively quickly and there was no basis for a public discussion. Before the public knew what kind of consequences it might face the Act had already passed congress. Mr. Martini said that he did not know of any Act in Germany or in the history of the European Union who went through congress that quickly. Hence, he says that the public opinion was not really taken into account and there was no time to point out the controversies that the Act might bring forth. Nonetheless, I did get the impression that he was somewhat supporting the USA Patriot Act.
I wanted to know what he thought about the fact that the U.S. government had the right to shut down sites that content is controversial. Mr. Martini highlights that the German government is doing the same thing with fascist's sites on the German internet. He think that this is the right of a democracy to protect its own well being and that those kinds of opinions should not be publicized anyways. In his opinion, it is not a violation of the freedom of speech right, since according to him "nobody needs that opinion".
Lastly, I wanted to know if he is afraid that his private communications on the internet become public. Mr. Martini said that he does not feel insecure at all. He does not have anything to hide and therefore does not mind if his communications become public. He thinks only people who do something wrong are actually afraid that someone is looking trough their stuff.
We thank Karsten Martini for his cooperation and
are thankful that he was willing to take some time out of his busy schedule
to meet with me and talk about the USA Patriot Act.