and b/c you can't find everyone easily on facebook
>I'm a German living in the United States and find this part of German society pretty annoying: Being super careful about anything that could potentially encroach on your privacy
In the case of Google Maps, I understand that a non-functional application might be annoying and at least Google makes some effort to blur data. But in my reading of the original post, the poster is annoyed that the German community at large has decided to exercise their rights to privacy.
It's everybody's right to do whatever they want with their personal information, but in Germany it often gets to a point where you're being judged if you yourself decide to post something on a social network site.
It also leads to all kind of weird regulations from the government (again, see Street View as an example or the more recent EU-wide regulation of a minimum age of 16 to open social network accounts).
Germans don't care at all about stuff like this. Instead I bet they would be outraged if a US based company did the exact same thing.
No, this is not true. Me and my circles openly disgust that. Only because there is no public outcry doesn't mean they don't care. But indeed it's rather the younger generation that cares about these topics.
I'm a German living in the United States and find this part of German society pretty annoying: Being super careful about anything that could potentially encroach on your privacy (for example see the fate of Google Street View in Germany).