Google Street View and Germany

An Aufruhr (uproar) in Germany. Google Street View. Cars with cameras mounted on their roof trolling the streets of Germans cities, towns and villages. Click. Germans are very sensitive when it comes to Datenschutz (privacy of information). It partly has to do with 1933-45, when the National Socialists ran the place. Bad experience. The state having the right to know anything and everything about everybody.

But, it also has to do with the fact that Germans are rather nosy people. MerriamWebster defines nosy/nosey as: of prying or inquisitive disposition or quality. It lists as a synonym: intrusive. Germans are particularly nosy about other Germans. The best-selling publication in Germany is the Bild Zeitung, which is more or less what the Germans call Klatsch und Tratsch. Gossip and Chatter. Germans are less wary of Canadians, Indonesians, Portugese or Ghanians leering at images of their town square as they are of the nosy neighbor down the street peeking into their windows.

But wait. Germany is an export economy. In fact, much of their self-understanding, identity, pride as a people, since 1945 is based on their ability to make products which sell abroad. Count the number of German products expressly marketed with the mantra „Made in Germany.“ And exporting successfuly means knowing the countries and peoples to whom you are exporting. Germans spend as much time on Google as any other of the most advanced economies. So we have a contradiction here. As Thomas de Maizière, Germany‘s Minister of Interior, said in a Handelsblatt-interview: „Yes, this is a question of privacy and the Internet. But not when it comes to areas which are clearly public, such as streets and building facades.“

Let‘s keep in mind, also, that it is August. And that means for the German media Sommerloch (literally: summer hole). Not much happening. Folks are on vacation. But, the beast needs to be fed. So, let‘s get the public all riled up about photos taken of their streets, mailboxes and the flower pots stuffed with colorful geraniums. And if you haven‘t noticed, over recent years the media (but not only they) have taken to being rather shrill, loud, panic-inducing.

Why should you care as an American working with Germans cross-Atlantically? For one, this has to do with information sharing. A critical and complex topic in any organization, but especially those operating across borders. What info to share, with which colleagues, when and in what form? And why? If you‘re American you may have noticed how quick you are to share information. In fact, hoarding or being political with information invites rapid punishment from your superior. American organizations – our society, for that matter – cannot function without a very high level of information flow. It‘s a part of our lifeblood. Not so in Germany, where Herrschaftswissen is the high art form of using information for personal tactical advantage. For Americans, key is not so much possessing information, as it is acting on it. In Germany, possessing to the exclusion of others is in and of itself of value. You can score points. Especially when others make mistakes based on inaccurate or inadequate information.

Secondly, you have in German companies the Works Council, a kind of white-collar union, not so much for management, but for all of those employees with desk jobs. Among other things, the Works Council maintains a thick firewall between the company (read: public) and the employee (read: private) spheres. Years ago Wal-Mart headquarters rolled out a directive worldwide, in reaction to misbehavior of an American senior-level manager and an American female employee of lower rank. Aufruhr at Wal-Mart Germany. The Works Council rejected it out of hand. It put a huge dent in Wal-Mart‘s image in Germany. This and other avoidable cultural missteps led to Wal-Mart losing loads of money, closing up shop, damaging its reputation. Analysts began to ask if the Wal-Mart model can be exported to other countries? Suggesting that its growth is limited to continental U.S.

Google Street view in Germany. Aufruhr. The Germans have a choice. Information can’t be a one-way street.