Reply to post: Re: Government mistrust in Germany and Korea

Internet users don't understand security or privacy, says survey

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Re: Government mistrust in Germany and Korea

I think the mistrust in Germany is more a statement of freedom NOW and more recent history than something from the long past.

German courts have overturned the EU data Retention directive as illegal, and gone after the German Spy Agency for assisting the NSA surveillance of Germany, and of course Merkel was spied on. So they are freer to speak. A lot of the freedom campaigners live in Berlin. You certainly wouldn't live in the UK and speak out like that, that would be nuts with the surveillance you'd be under. I doubt any UK politician would dare express strong pro-privacy views in the current oppressive climate.

The second thing is, half of Germany is former East German, and they had the STASI watching their views for signs of dissent up until the early 90s. That's well within the memory of many people in Germany. When you think about it, there's no real difference between STASI then and GCHQ/Police Forward Intelligence unit, now.

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