Not only the phone of German Chancellor, but also a German student was spied on by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) because of his hobby, according to a study released on Thursday by German media.
Sebastian Hahn is a student from southern German city of Erlangen, who is engaged in encryption technology during his free time. He runs a server for an anonymizing network, which helps users to hide their tracks on the internet, German radio channel NDR and WDR reported.
Hahn, the second victim of the NSA known by name in Germany after Chancellor Angela Merkel, described the act of the NSA as "shocking."
"This is a huge invasion of my privacy," he said in an interview.
In addition, all users, usually hundreds of thousands every day, who use the server provided by Hahn would be specially marked by the NSA, and their connections would also be stored.
It was reported that Chancellor Merkel's cell phone was monitored by NSA, and Germany's federal prosecutor decided in June to launch a criminal investigation into the alleged hacking.