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> The German government confers more privacy rights on foreigners with no connection to their country whatsoever than the American government is even willing to
by hannob 6y ago
> The German government confers more privacy rights on foreigners with no connection to their country whatsoever than the American government is even willing to extend to citizens
You misinterpreted that quite a lot. It's more or less the opposite.
Actually the German government created a law that allowed this kind of surveillance. The highest court just killed that law and this is what this news is about.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- elliekelly 6y agoI think we just have different understanding of what “government” means. I consider the judiciary an equal part of the government the same as the legislature and the executive. From your comment it seems you only consider “government” to mean the legislative branch.
- Tomte 6y agoThat's a common source of misunderstanding between Americans and Germans. We Germans usually only call the cabinet ministers and the chancellor (the executive branch – not the legislative branch!) "government", and depending on the issue, also the civil service. You call the whole "state thing" "government".
- distances 6y agoTo chime in, this is exactly how "government" would be understood in Finland too -- it's a synonym to the cabinet.
- close04 6y agoThe key point is that German courts demanded that the country's laws be adjusted in order to respect the rights guaranteed by the German constitution even if the affected parties are foreigners on foreign land. This is even if Germans don't make it a habit to go around shouting that they have the constitutional rights to this or that. Other countries are not willing to extend that "privilege" to their own nationals on domestic soil.