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> Unless you know the shop owner, you would not be personally identified, and yes, in fact, it would be illegal to use technology that personally identifies you

> Unless you know the shop owner, you would not be personally identified, and yes, in fact, it would be illegal to use technology that personally identifies you when you walk into a shop. German law has often seemed silly to me, and this isn't an exception.

rowyourboat 9y ago
The principle is that people have the expectation that their movements in the public space aren't recorded. Anything that violates that expectation is problematic to straight illegal. I don't find that silly, quite the contrary. I guess software that simply displays your name on a screen, but does not (identifiably) record that fact would be fine, though that would pose the question how the software would connect your face with your name - you would probably have to volunteer a photo for that to work.
- yurishimo 9y ago
  Can shop owners in Germany not have surveillance cameras in their buildings? Unless you walk into the grocery store with a mask, you would then be on video and identifiable in some way. In the US and the UK, almost every business of any value is recording you from the moment you walk in. At the very least, they likely have a camera on the cash register to deter theft. The UK is widely known to record public spaces with some videos being made of following people in London for miles. Outside of your own home, privacy regarding your physical person is basically nonexistent except in a bathroom stall. In the US, it’s 100% legal to take photos of other people in public without their permission. I think the barrier to provide the maximum amount of privacy for citizens in every aspect of their lives is too high in most of the modern world. There is simply no precedent for limiting the amount of data that is collected in public that will sway legislators across the world.
  - rowyourboat 9y ago
    > Can shop owners in Germany not have surveillance cameras in their buildings? Unless you walk into the grocery store with a mask, you would then be on video and identifiable in some way. They can, but you have to be informed of that fact. The business may only use the recordings to investigate a crime, it may not use it for anything else, and they have to be erased after a certain amount of time.
ascorbic 9y ago
A country that's had both the Gestapo and the Stasi deserves some understanding about laws to prevent privacy infringement. It's not surprising that they're worried about it: they've seen what it can do.

rowyourboat 9y ago

The principle is that people have the expectation that their movements in the public space aren't recorded. Anything that violates that expectation is problematic to straight illegal. I don't find that silly, quite the contrary. I guess software that simply displays your name on a screen, but does not (identifiably) record that fact would be fine, though that would pose the question how the software would connect your face with your name - you would probably have to volunteer a photo for that to work.

yurishimo 9y ago
Can shop owners in Germany not have surveillance cameras in their buildings? Unless you walk into the grocery store with a mask, you would then be on video and identifiable in some way. In the US and the UK, almost every business of any value is recording you from the moment you walk in. At the very least, they likely have a camera on the cash register to deter theft. The UK is widely known to record public spaces with some videos being made of following people in London for miles. Outside of your own home, privacy regarding your physical person is basically nonexistent except in a bathroom stall. In the US, it’s 100% legal to take photos of other people in public without their permission. I think the barrier to provide the maximum amount of privacy for citizens in every aspect of their lives is too high in most of the modern world. There is simply no precedent for limiting the amount of data that is collected in public that will sway legislators across the world.
- rowyourboat 9y ago
  > Can shop owners in Germany not have surveillance cameras in their buildings? Unless you walk into the grocery store with a mask, you would then be on video and identifiable in some way. They can, but you have to be informed of that fact. The business may only use the recordings to investigate a crime, it may not use it for anything else, and they have to be erased after a certain amount of time.

ascorbic 9y ago

A country that's had both the Gestapo and the Stasi deserves some understanding about laws to prevent privacy infringement. It's not surprising that they're worried about it: they've seen what it can do.