Legacy of Nazi era, Cold War make privacy-obsessed Germans wary of Google Street View
BERLIN (AP) — Germans have long harbored an obsession about protecting privacy, with memories of Nazi-era denouncements of neighbors and East German secret police snooping still alive. Now they have found a new target for their fears: Google "Street View."
Under strong government pressure, the Internet giant made Germany the only country where people can request to have images of their homes deleted from the project before it goes online in November, along with other concessions.
It has all stirred debate about how to define and defend privacy in the digital age and revealed a yawning generational divide between those old enough to recall invasive past regimes and those who have grown up with the Internet.
"There is a fear of becoming a 'See-through Citizen' in a totalitarian surveillance state," said Jesko Kaltenbaek, a professor of psychology at Berlin's Freie University....
Read entire article at AP
Under strong government pressure, the Internet giant made Germany the only country where people can request to have images of their homes deleted from the project before it goes online in November, along with other concessions.
It has all stirred debate about how to define and defend privacy in the digital age and revealed a yawning generational divide between those old enough to recall invasive past regimes and those who have grown up with the Internet.
"There is a fear of becoming a 'See-through Citizen' in a totalitarian surveillance state," said Jesko Kaltenbaek, a professor of psychology at Berlin's Freie University....