throwaway29369

I did not claim that the situation was as bad as in Russia or China. In Germany government harassment of "terrorists" and other unwanted elements was bad enough though. Heinrich Böll's treatment is well known.

It is true though that unlike today, Germany did have an actual terrorism problem in the 1970s.

Also for private European citizens it makes sense to buy hardware that is manufactured entirely in China or Russia. European governments have a long history of ruthlessly harrassing and destroying the lives of innocent citizens:

http://courses.umass.edu/comm342/taubin.html

["The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" is worth reading, better than the movie.]

I'm not claiming that things are better in China, but at least Chinese authorities gathering data would rarely matter to a European citizen.