Ombudsman Irena Lipowicz has called on Poland’s attorney general to launch an investigation into alleged US surveillance of Polish citizens and authorities.
“Public authorities in Poland have an obligation to make every effort to investigate and prevent situations involving the unauthorized processing of personal data,” Lipowicz wrote to Attorney General Andrzej Seremet.
In the letter, Lipowicz noted that the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office is already looking into allegations of US surveillance after a formal complaint was lodged.
Lipowicz questioned Seremet whether similar proceedings would be set in motion in Poland. The surveillance scandal broke in June 2013, after former US intelligence operative Edward Snowden handed over documents to UK paper the Guardian and US daily the Washington Post.
Snowden’s revelations indicated that the US had been using the mass data mining computer programme PRISM since 2007.
US intelligence purportedly accessed email, video and voice chat, and other social networking devices in numerous countries.
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