Yes, Germans are instinctively distrustful of big tech companies such as Google and Facebook. As a result, the inexorable advance of digitization is viewed with a mixture of fatalism and misgiving.Įxample one: Germany’s split personality when it comes to social media.

But Nie wieder is difficult to maintain in a world that increasingly mines and monetises data. In May 2018, the EU adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which follows the German model of data discretion rather than the laxer American one.įoreign firms operating in Germany have to adjust to some of the strictest privacy laws in the world.In March 2010, the German Federal Constitutional Court overturned a law that allowed the authorities to store phone and email data for up to six months for security reasons, as a “grave intrusion” of personal privacy rights.The court recognised German citizens’ right to “informational self-determination” and block the sharing of any personal information with any government agency or corporation. In the 1980s, citizens successfully sued the government over a census questionnaire so detailed it would allow the government to identify individuals.In 1979, West Germany laid the foundation for the Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG), or Federal Data Protection Act, the main aim of which was to protect the inviolability of personal, private information.In 1970, the German state of Hesse passed the first data protection law in the world.Over the decades, Germany broadened and deepened its definition of privacy. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority. That’s one of the reasons why the very first article of (then still only West) Germany’s post-war constitution reads: As with many other aspects of the Nazi regime, post-war Germany resolved Nie wieder (“Never again”) when it came to violations of privacy.

In both systems, citizens effectively ceased to have a right to privacy, and could be branded criminals for private thoughts or acts, resulting in severe punishment.

Google maps 2008 street view