Click on the Street View feature in Google Maps and you will notice something interesting. While the whole of Europe is blue, most of Germany appears empty. There is a reason for this difference worth learning about.
Google Street View has mapped millions of miles of roads around the world since 2007; even exaggerating even to space and ocean gone.
Despite this, there is still a noticeable gap in the middle of Europe. Well this country Although it has caught the modern age Why not allow this feature?
You may have thought that the first reason that comes to mind is privacy, but the main reason is close to this, but not exactly this.
Contains Nudity
As you can see in the photo, Germans are comfortable both on the beach and in city parks. nakedly a people who do not hesitate to sunbathe. In fact, it is called FKK (freikörperkultur/free body culture) for people to wander outside of their mother and is identified with the Germans. There are even special campsites for this.
They are not afraid to show their “private places”, but they are afraid to show their “personal information”.
This subtle difference is very important. Protecting their personal information is a very sensitive issue for Germans. They are quite surprised how we or many other nationalities are able to freely share their names, addresses, friend lists and online purchase histories (it is unfortunately now circulating as our personal information is stolen from individual sites).
According to research published in the Harvard Business Review; an average German, is willing to pay up to $184 to protect their personal health data. For the average Brit, the confidentiality of this information is only worth $59. For Americans, this value drops to single digits.
So why are Germans so sensitive about this?
Because the Germans in their recent past suffered the trauma of two totalitarian systems (fascist Third Reich and communist East Germany) and its effects can still be observed in society.
When Germany got rid of these totalitarian regimes that used personal information and gave people hard times. “Nie wieder” (“Never again”) adopted his motto. This is one of the reasons why the first article of Germany’s post-war constitution reads: Human dignity will be inviolable. It is the duty of all state authority to respect and protect it.
Germany has expanded its definition of privacy over the decades due to totalitarian traumas.
- a German state in 1970 first data protection law in the world took it out.
- In 1979, West Germany laid the foundation for data protection law, the main purpose of which was to protect the privacy of personal information.
- In the 1980s, citizens came up with the government’s census plan detailed enough to get into the privacy of individuals. He sued the government and won. Thus, the court prevented German citizens from sharing any personal information with any government agency or organization.
- In March 2010, the German Federal Constitutional Court; It overturned a law that allowed citizens to store phone and email data for up to six months, seeing it as a “grave interference” with their privacy rights.
- In May 2018, the European Union replaced the looser American model. exemplary of the German model It adopted the General Data Protection Regulation.
Obviously, it will be difficult for Germany to maintain Nie wieder in a world that is increasingly data mining and monetizing data.
The wave-by-wave progress of digitalization, He can even break the German stubbornness in time. Because even though they do not allow Google Street View, they give a lot of their information to technology companies such as Google and Meta. Google has taken over 90% of the search engine market in Germany and almost half of all Germans have a Facebook account.
Google’s camera cars mapped 8 million kilometers of roads in 39 countries in June 2012; On its 10th anniversary in May 2017, a total of 16 million miles in 83 countries.
Still, not many countries and areas use Google Street View technology. Each country has its own reasons.
In fact, in August 2010, Google announced that it would be mapping the streets of Germany’s 20 largest cities by the end of that year, but public outcry erupted upon hearing the news. Some of Google’s camera cars were hacked.
The German Consumer Protection Minister of the time, Ilse Aigner, described this technology of Google as a “private domain violation”. shamelessly trying to collect photos told.
Google blurs faces and license plates to avoid privacy violations.
Even in front of houses upon special request. automatically blur. Still, the Germans don’t seem to agree to that either. Who knows, maybe the younger generations will not be so sensitive about their personal data as long as the totalitarian regime periods are far away. Time will show that…
In Turkey, the situation is like this:
So what do you think about Google Street View? Everyone can see the front of your house Is it a problem for you too? Or are the Germans over exaggerating?
Sources: 1, 2
RELATED NEWS