Internal Security Institutions Meeting Internet Governance. A comparative view on the UK and Germany

Abstract

The internet stays a high potential infrastructure of open interaction, hence, governmental desires in monitoring the internet are growing. A demonstrative example might be the attempts to make any technology based communication ‘traceable’ with the help of a European scheme of data retention (EU direction 2006/24/EC) and its national ratifications.

Regarding this, two theses come up: First, governments try to achieve their logic of ‘real life’ internal security also within the internet regime. Second, the internet changed the society in so far as it opened space for new relevant communities and actors – lobbying more and more on institutionalised paths.

This will be shown by analysing the processes in the UK and Germany. A focus will lie on each national implementation of the EU’s data retention directive. Societal and especially political differences will find some notion as well, as they build the framework of any political decision making process.