Tag Archives: Data

If “nothing works any more…”

September 25, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness Tags: , , 2 Comments

Why should anyone be surprised when the Federal Statistical Office gets its numbers wrong?

And actually, if you stop to think about it, federal statistical offices always get their numbers wrong so maybe they finally got something right.

Germany’s botched data revamp leaves economists ‘flying blind’ – IT hitches force Federal Statistical Office to suspend consumer and services releases.

Germany’s statistical office has suspended some of its most important indicators after botching a data update, leaving citizens and economists in the dark at a time when the country is trying to boost flagging growth.

In a nation once famed for its punctuality and reliability, even its notoriously diligent beancounters have become part of a growing perception that “nothing works any more” as Germans moan about delayed trains, derelict roads and bridges, and widespread staff shortages.

“There used to be certain aspects in life that you could just rely on, and the fact that official statistics are published on time was one of them — not any more.”

Germany’s National Cloud Sovereignty Will Now Be Achieved

September 9, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

By hiring Google. You know. To make Germany more sovereign and not so dependent on companies like Google?

Germany has, along with France, been a driving force behind Europe’s quest for cloud “sovereignty.” When the countries announced plans for a European cloud network called Gaia-X a couple of years back, the idea was for European enterprises not to have to rely on foreign providers for the foundations of their online services and internal data-wrangling.

Now Germany is getting a “sovereign cloud” that will target sectors such as automotive and health care, along with the public sector, when it launches next year. It will be run by T-Systems, the Deutsche Telekom–owned systems integrator that is one of Gaia-X’s founding members, in partnership with the distinctly non-European cloud giant that is Google.

It’s Called Paranoia

September 27, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, History, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypochondria, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Why is Germany a blank spot on Google’s Street View? See above.

Paranoia

There are good historical reasons why Germans are suspicious of surveillance — but is Google as bad as Gestapo or Stasi?

It’s to do with Germans’ curious sense of privacy: they’d rather flaunt their private parts than their personal data…

While public nudity is a big no-no in the United States for example, Germany has a long tradition with what is known as FKK – short for Freikörperkultur, or “Free Body Culture.” Certain beaches and areas of city parks are dedicated to nude sunbathing, and even Nacktwanderung (“nude rambling”) is a thing.

On the other hand, Germans are extremely possessive of their personal data — and are shocked by the readiness with which Americans (and others) share their names, addresses, friends’ lists, and purchase histories online.

According to research presented in the Harvard Business Review, the average German is willing to pay as much as $184 to protect their personal health data. For the average Brit, the privacy of that information is only worth $59. For Americans and Chinese, that value declines to single-digit figures.

If The Deutsche Post Does It It’s Different

April 2, 2018 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Hi-tech, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

As usual, German Scheiße doesn’t stink.

Deutsche Post

When it comes to data mining = Cambridge Analytica = Facebook = US-Amerika, we’re talking pure evil. The Deutsche Post, on the other hand, is the Deutsche Post so it ain’t no big deal – when they do the same thing. The outrage hält sich in Grenzen (is kept within limits).

Deutsche Post sold client microtargeting data to the Christian Democrats and Free Democrats before the 2017 elections. Is this a scandal along the lines of Cambridge Analytica in the US? That depends on whom you ask.

“German ‘data-driven’ canvassing cannot be compared with the highly sophisticated US campaigns, which use reliable data, experimental findings and data modeling to identify individual voter targets.”

Vorratsdatenspeicherung

April 27, 2012 By in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Is that a German word, or what?

And it looks like it’s a word that’s going to cost Germany millions in fines for not being willing to go along with the guidelines concerning it as determined by the EU.

I mean, we all know that Vorratsdatenspeicherung is a touchy subject and all. Some countries do their Vorratsdatenspeicherung this way, other countries do their Vorratsdatenspeicherung that way. But any way you cut the Vorratsdatenspeicherung cake, Vorratsdatenspeicherung is Vorratsdatenspeicherung and I, for one, find it irresponsible of Germany to just ignore the EU’s Vorratsdatenspeicherung guidelines like that, just because they’re Germany, I mean. All Europeans are in the same Vorratsdatenspeicherung boat, after all.

Who do they think they are, anyway?

You should be ashamed of yourself, Germany. Put that in your Vorratsdatenspeicherung pipe and smoke it.

“Was wir auf den ersten Blick sagen können ist, dass Deutschland anscheinend keinen Fortschritt bei der Umsetzung der EU-Richtlinie zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung gemacht hat und weiterhin EU-Recht verletzt.”

PS: Vorratsdatenspeicherung means data retention (the EU wants to retain data for six months, Germany doesn’t).