Now it’s official: German chancellor Angela Merkel was monitored by US authorities. They directly tapped her phone. This time, her upset was honest but too late as it was clear before that the European public has been monitored. Every day, more details about who is monitoring whom come to light. Basically, most of the states who have the ability and the networks record as much of all communication as they can.
This is a huge violation of a basic democratic principle: Presumed innocence. That means a concrete suspicion or criminal intent must be given in order to monitor your phone or collect information otherwise. 
If you give no reason, authorities have no means to store your information. While you are reading this, American secret services monitor EVERY communication in Europe. This turns this law principle upside down: Presumed innocence becomes presumed guilt. Mass surveillance therefore has human rights consequences on the big scale as an open letter by 70 human rights organizations to British Prime Minister David Cameron explains. It took some time for me to realize the fundamental consequences for my set of values.
My image of humanity incorporates presumed innocence. Being criminal is the exception of the rule, depending on laws of course. If I would assume that everyone around me wants to do bad, to me or to others, social life would be nothing but mistrust. But I want to trust. I want to see people as good. And I’m not socially romantic but I think everyone deserves to be trusted until this is proven wrong. What is happening now is that we need to prove to be trustworthy without any justified suspicion.
Barak Obama’s speeches of friendship, peace and change become sarcastic in this light. I think I have nothing to hide but I want to control who sees what. This is a basic right and need of human behavior. Private sphere is vital to our mental health. Now this is violated. Of course I knew and of course I didn’t want to see it. I wanted to believe that there is a tiny bit of trust and goodwill left. I was proven wrong. Should I change my human image now? Certainly not. But I need to adapt to new circumstances. There are ways reclaim privacy with encoded web surfing and emails, maybe even secure telephone lines. All I need to find is a way to figure out how this works without using google.
Axel Kunz (M.A.) studied political science at the University of Jena and writes about his opinion on current political questions.