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FRANKFURT, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Germany's biggest telecomsoperator is pushing to shield local internet traffic fromforeign spies by routing it only through domestic connections,Deutsche Telekom said on Saturday.
Public outrage followed revelations that U.S. spy programmeshad accessed the private messages of German citizens. DeutscheTelekom had already said it would only channel local emailtraffic through servers within Germany.
The company aims to agree with other internet providers thatany data being transmitted domestically would not leave Germanborders, a Deutsche Telekom spokesman said.
"In a next step, this initiative could be expanded to theSchengen area," the spokesman said, referring to the group of 26European countries - excluding Britain - that have abandonedimmigration controls.
Revelations of snooping by the secret services of the UnitedStates and Britain were based on documents leaked by fugitiveformer National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported in June that the United Statestaps half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages inGermany in a typical month.
Government snooping is a sensitive subject in Germany due tothe heavy surveillance of citizens in the former communist Eastand under Hitler's Nazis.
One of Deutsche Telekom's competitors, internet serviceprovider QSC, had questioned the feasibility of itsplan to shield internet traffic, saying it was not possible todetermine clearly whether data was being routed nationally orinternationally, WirtschaftsWoche magazine reported.
Other providers, including Vodafone and Telefonica, are currently considering whether they want to joinDeutsche Telekom's initiative, it reported.
Vodafone, Telefonica's German unit and QSC were notimmediately available for comment.
