I'm not German, but I understand Germany is very strong in the personal rights department and have a serious separation between government and state, which minimizes the influence of the gov-of-the-day on business matters -- maybe I'm wrong here (again: not German), but I understood Merkel's government freaking out about the possibility of Snowden asking asylum in Germany because, despite the governmental dislike, it was a State affair and they couldn't do nothing to prevent it if he reached German territory.

Anyway, I feel Germany is a wonderful country and this kind of marketing is somewhat of a international recognition for that.

Is it a selling point with much substance, though? Genuinely curious. Seems to me that if the American government wanted your data for some reason, obtaining it from Germany wouldn't be so hard.

I am not an expert on these matters, but I would imagine that the process for legally obtaining data from foreign countries is both more difficult and more public (a National Security Letter would have no teeth in Germany). Additionally, Germany has a better reputation (perhaps unearned?) for privacy rights, especially as the greatest pillar of the liberal EU, and because when the NSA bugged Merkel's cell phone they soured the intelligence relationship considerably.

I live in Germany. It appears to me that the outrage from the government was largely theatre for the public, than serious. There is an election coming up.