As far as I can tell, Germany is the most privacy aware country worldwide. Every larger company and every office, be it federal or private has to have a “data protection officer” on its payroll (if that’s the right translation of the german “Datenschutzbeauftrager”). In the course of the War on Terror the German government is having a hard time to give the public an understanding of the need to expand the legal possibilities for police and intelligence agencies in eavesdropping phone lines and adding biometric data to ID cards. People seem to be especially sensitive when it comes to the installation of security cameras at public places or in public transportation, “1984” has left it’s mark!
Even a discussion about the possibility to install such cameras usually causes an outcry.
At the same time most people don’t seem to care about privacy issues when they’re online.
To them, Google’s just a friend whom they ask for advice 200 million times a day altogether. They neither know what Google cookies are, nor do they know that every search they do generates 9 cent ($) for Google. (how much would that be with anounymous search?)
As far as I can tell, most people actually believe that their “Google history” starts all over again with every new search…
So I wonder what would happen if all those people, scared to have their movements recorded by ultra-low-res security cameras found out that their online “friend” is keeping a very precise account of everything they were showing interest in online?
My impression: People, and I am particularly concerned with Germans, overestimate privacy issues offline while they underestimate the situation online.

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