NO. There are differences that have everyday consequences. It is illegal in Germany to share information gained by intelligence agencies with the regular polic

NO. There are differences that have everyday consequences. It is illegal in Germany to share information gained by intelligence agencies with the regular police[1]. This is eroding, but we are fighting against it. State surveillance is specifically regulated in a fundamental right that is unique to Germany[2]. There are officials trying to ignore this (Autobahn toll-collection), but we are fighting against it. Most people here use American service providers, American social networks and the like. Those who are not uneasy regarding the privacy of the data are quite the minority. Many people use fake names on facebook that only their friends know (Yea, doesn't work, but they try!) and are very picky regarding the information they share. German companies with critical information are avoiding American services or, for those that were to blind to see what was coming, moving away from American services. Everybody here knows that US companies are unavoidable these days, but we are trying do do something against it. Germans are extremely suspicious of intelligence agencies and completely disapprove of data sharing with the US and UK. However, it still happens because, as a consequence of that war we lost, the Western Allies have access to our intelligence agencies. This seems to be impossible to change, but we are fighting against it. [1] http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FTrennungsgebot_zwischen_Nachrichtendiensten_und_Polizei http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informational_self-determination http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informational_self-determinatio...