For starters he was referring to the East German Stasi.
Nothing to do with Nazis, Hitler, or the third Reich.
In addition: Many people think that whenever Nazi (or equivalent) is mentioned you lose according to Godwin's Law.
This is not so, however, when the reference is actually related to the discussion. For example: You may bring up Nazis in a discussion about totalitarian regime, or Fascism, without falling into Godwin's Law trap.
And to conclude: In a discussion about a device, which enables snooping on a large scale a referenced to the GDR's stasi is certainly not out of line.
The Stasi were active in East Germany, which was essentially a Soviet puppet state, after the end of WWII, so Godwin's law doesn't really apply here (since the Stasi specifically and the leadership of East Germany in general were neither Hitler nor Nazis).
