Europe Investigating Echelon Surveillance and Privacy from Government7/5/2000; 10:50:56 AM "The EU committee has one year to establish whether the Echelon system really exists and whether European industry has been damaged by global interception of communications. It will also consider whether the privacy of individuals can be protected from spying and how this can be done."In a seperate development, the French are opening their own investigation.

Dintilhac's office began the preliminary investigation in response to a letter by a French center-right member of the European parliament, Thierry Jean-Pierre, who alleged Echelon was potentially prejudicial to French nationals and to France's economic interests.Dintilhac has ordered the state counter-intelligence agency DST to find out whether Echelon's activities could be qualified under French law as ``harmful to the vital interests of the (French) nation.''

More power to them. If my country has engaged in these practices, I am ashamed.It has been pointed out that countries spy on each other all the time, and that there are no friends at the nation level, only interests. This is true, and regardless of how you feel about it, there's nothing you can do about it that makes any sense. If you stop to think about it, you might even call it a good thing. However, to pass information on to private individuals with the intent of enriching them, that is over the line.Slashdot article on the French probe... unusually informative in the higher-scoring comments.