I think there are some small green shoots in Berlin, but I'm not sure whether it is anything to write home about.
It is true that Germans are more privacy conscious. Yesterday for example, the Federal Bureau of Information Technology (BSI) launched a tool that allowed Germans the possibility to see if they are 1 of the 16 million identities recovered from a botnet analysis project. Although the site went down after it was featured on the nightly national news, it shows that the German government is actively encouraging and publicizing privacy and crime related issues affecting the German public.
Of course it doesn't address the issues of the EU data retention laws and the access that the BND have to access email whenever they feel like it.
Also, the recent "efforts" of the largest internet service providers in Germany to encrypt email transport between each other has been seen as more of a publicity stunt then anything of any real value concerning privacy. Emails are still unencrypted when stored.
You are aware that Berlin isn't the biggest IT/software cluster in Germany? There are a lot more companies with a lot more revenue in the Rhein-Main-Neckar area[1](pdf, image page 3).
It's just that the "sexy, webby" stuff is in Berlin, so it has more visibility.
It is true that Germans are more privacy conscious. Yesterday for example, the Federal Bureau of Information Technology (BSI) launched a tool that allowed Germans the possibility to see if they are 1 of the 16 million identities recovered from a botnet analysis project. Although the site went down after it was featured on the nightly national news, it shows that the German government is actively encouraging and publicizing privacy and crime related issues affecting the German public.
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=...
Of course it doesn't address the issues of the EU data retention laws and the access that the BND have to access email whenever they feel like it.
Also, the recent "efforts" of the largest internet service providers in Germany to encrypt email transport between each other has been seen as more of a publicity stunt then anything of any real value concerning privacy. Emails are still unencrypted when stored.