> Both are allegedly a secret part of an intelligence agency named the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
> So an AirTag addressed to a telecommunications authority based in one part of Germany, ends up in the offices of an intelligence agency based in another part of the country.
A software developer who describes herself as a “riot influencer”, whatever that is, discovers a reference to a federal agency nobody seems to have heard of. She sends a tracking device to the address, which finds its way instead to the very well-known Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The article seems to suggest that the Telecommunications Service is a front for the secret Office for the Protection of the Constitution, but that has to be a misunderstanding because the latter is, as I said, absolutely not secret at all.
There are many explanations for this. It may be, for example, that the Telecommunications Service does exist, but when it was sent a mysterious electronic gadget from a source that shouldn’t have any business knowing about the agency, it got the Office for the Protection of the Constitution involved. Or maybe the Telecommunications Service doesn’t in fact exist at all, but is a fake agency used by the other for some reason connected to their undercover work.
I don’t know, there are a lot of possible explanations, some benign, some genuinely worrying. And we only have Wittmann’s word for it, because of course the clues she followed to find this mysterious agency have been covered up (or, alternatively, never existed).
Whatever: some aspects of this feel like they’re entering tinfoil hat territory. I’m not going to say there’s nothing to this at all, but if Wittmann is telling the absolute truth then the authorities did a pretty bad job of keeping this secret agency secret.
3 comments
At least it must be worse in the USA, right?
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/01/25/apples-airtag-uncovers-a-secret-german-intelligence-agency) reduced by 86%. (I’m a bot)
*****
> Activist Lilith Wittmann claims that she has uncovered how Germany's little-known Federal Telecommunications Service is actually a "Camouflage authority" for a secret intelligence agency.
> Both are allegedly a secret part of an intelligence agency named the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
> So an AirTag addressed to a telecommunications authority based in one part of Germany, ends up in the offices of an intelligence agency based in another part of the country.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/sdo1xu/apple_airtag_uncovers_secret_german_intelligence/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ “Version 2.02, ~620096 tl;drs so far.”) | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr “PM’s and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.”) | *Top* *keywords*: **Federal**^#1 **intelligence**^#2 **authority**^#3 **part**^#4 **Wittmann**^#5
Let me see if I’ve understood this correctly.
A software developer who describes herself as a “riot influencer”, whatever that is, discovers a reference to a federal agency nobody seems to have heard of. She sends a tracking device to the address, which finds its way instead to the very well-known Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The article seems to suggest that the Telecommunications Service is a front for the secret Office for the Protection of the Constitution, but that has to be a misunderstanding because the latter is, as I said, absolutely not secret at all.
There are many explanations for this. It may be, for example, that the Telecommunications Service does exist, but when it was sent a mysterious electronic gadget from a source that shouldn’t have any business knowing about the agency, it got the Office for the Protection of the Constitution involved. Or maybe the Telecommunications Service doesn’t in fact exist at all, but is a fake agency used by the other for some reason connected to their undercover work.
I don’t know, there are a lot of possible explanations, some benign, some genuinely worrying. And we only have Wittmann’s word for it, because of course the clues she followed to find this mysterious agency have been covered up (or, alternatively, never existed).
Whatever: some aspects of this feel like they’re entering tinfoil hat territory. I’m not going to say there’s nothing to this at all, but if Wittmann is telling the absolute truth then the authorities did a pretty bad job of keeping this secret agency secret.