Operation Eikonal

Operation Eikonal is a collaboration between the National Security Agency (NSA) and Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) for the sharing of telephony and Internet data captured in Germany.

[8] Later, during parliamentary hearings conducted on November 6, 2014, one witness claimed that the 95% figure was only correct for the initial testing and that during operation, 99% of data from German citizens was filtered out.

[12] After the revelations made by whistleblower Edward Snowden the BND decided to investigate the issue; their October 2013 conclusion was that at least 2,000 of these selectors were aimed at Western European or even German interests which has been a violation of the Memorandum of Agreement that the US and Germany signed in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.

[13][14] The BND's project group charged with supporting the NSA investigative committee in German parliament set up in spring 2014, reviewed the selectors and discovered 40,000 suspicious search parameters, including espionage targets in Western European governments and numerous companies.

[20][21][22] Klaus Landefeld, member of the board at the Internet industry association Eco International, has met intelligence officials and legislators to present suggestions for improvement, like streamlining the selector system.

Radomes at the Fernmeldeverkehrstelle des Bundesnachrichtendiensts (BND-Codename: Hortensie III, abbreviated 3 D 30), part of the Bad Aibling Station in Bavaria. This facility was run by the National Security Agency (NSA) until 2004 as part of ECHELON , [ 1 ] and later, after transfer to the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), was used by the Special US Liaison Activity Germany , where the NSA and BND jointly analysed data captured under Operation Eikonal. [ 2 ]