[Macha]

Nah, I think from being around privacy communities there is definitely at least a big German presence, and even in EU privacy regulation, Germans have played a part.

At the risk of invoking Godwin's law, I think it genuinely does come down to the Nazis and Gestapo and what those groups did with the information they had. Not saying that every German thinking about their privacy is thinking about that, but it does kind of de-fang the "nothing to hide" argument and that allows a bigger pro-privacy culture to develop.

At the same time there's some notable exceptions, such as their rules around impressums.

[smogcutter]

The Stasi, as well. I wonder if even within Germany there’s a difference in attitudes between east and west.

[Macha]

Ahh, I mixed up my oppressive German secret police forces, I meant the Stasi as the Gestapo were already covered under Nazis. (The fact that it happened twice though does help against "nothing to hide")

[thatloststudent]

I definitely feel a large German presence as a very active Matrix user, but Hetzner and Contabo are also some of the cheapest providers, so it just makes more logical sense to use their VPSes and bare metal servers.

[milvaed]

Same in France, Verdun is still in our conscience and "nothing to hide" is a very badly seen opinion. Probably less than in Germany but still.