BERLIN — In a quiet neighborhood of Berlin's Kreuzberg district, C-base, a hackers den designed to resemble a space station – complete with LED kitsch – is a hive of activity. On a Wednesday evening, several dozen Berliners gather to socialize and hear presentations on net-related topics while sipping pilsners. This is the monthly "Internet politics" evening of Berlin's Digitale Gesellschaft – Digital Society, in English – an organization that campaigns for civil rights and consumer protection in Internet policy.

In light of the Brussels bombings in late March, some German authorities are renewing calls for more data, once again turning attention to the pro-privacy efforts of groups like Digitale Gesellschaft. Privacy, however, is a highly sensitive topic in Germany. Since the 2013 revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency had been examining private phone conversations of Germans, the country has hosted an increasing number of debates on privacy issues in both the public and private arenas.



Regardless of whether or not they act on collecting more data, German authorities are taking note of citizens' concerns, says the organization's director, Alexander Sander, citing the government's passage of a bill in 2014 that aims to make Germany a global leader in the expansion of high-speed data lines and online security. "Maybe our issues won't always be in the headlines, but they are there," he says. "Five years ago, that wasn't the case."

Founded in 2010, the group consists of 35 industry specialists, including copyright lawyers, cryptography professors and journalists. They conduct a variety of campaigns on topics ranging from net neutrality to European Union-wide retention of passenger data. The group professes a proactive approach by proposing legislation to the German parliament and engaging citizens through social media campaigns, occasional rallies and a weekly radio show on the popular station FluxFm.

Skepticism toward data collection

Germans say their attitudes toward digital privacy and the collection of big data vary greatly from those in the U.S. "In Germany, privacy is a civil right, and in the United States, it's an option," says Markus Beckedahl, editor-in-chief of news platform Netzpolitik and one of the founders of Digitale Gesellschaft.

Public reaction here was strong when former N.S.A. contractor Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 the extent to which the U.S. agency collected the data of its own citizens and allies. The revelations, including allegations that Chancellor Angela Merkel's personal cellphone had been tapped, put considerable strain on trans-Atlantic ties and dominated the German media.

"After the Snowden disclosures, German-American relations were most definitely at a low point," says Sudha David-Wilp, a Senior Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund.

Germans' skepticism toward data collection is well founded. "Our relationship with privacy and intelligence and surveillance is driven by a legacy of past abuse," says Mirko Hohmann, a research associate at Berlin think tank Global Public Policy Institute. The Nazis used IBM's technology as early as 1933 to orchestrate the horrors of the Holocaust. The widespread surveillance by the Stasi, the East German secret police, is still fresh in the collective consciousness.

The German constitution, created in 1949 following World War II, forbids spying on German citizens and debates surrounding government's use of big data often draw on the past. When then-Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble proposed in 2007 a pre-emptive national security strategy that included covert searches of computer equipment and the retention of telecommunications data, the Internet community reacted with a flurry of memes, referring to Schäuble as "Stasi 2.0."



Big data debates in the private sector have further revealed the rift between attitudes toward data privacy on both sides of the Atlantic.

Last October, Safe Harbor, an agreement that allowed $260 billion in trans-Atlantic digital services trade generated by companies like Google and Facebook, was declared invalid. Europeans' data, said judges, was no longer adequately protected in light of the N.S.A. disclosures. Its replacement, Privacy Shield, was introduced early last month in what the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker described as a "tremendous victory for privacy, individuals, and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic," in a statement . However, it is already drawing criticism from privacy advocates who say it is a thinly veiled reform. It is likely to return to the European Court of Justice.

In contrast to Europe, the U.S. does not have a single overarching privacy law, but rather separate laws that apply to specific sectors, like the health industry.

Citizens take privacy in their own hands

While some Berliners focus efforts on changing policy, others are taking their fight to bars and backrooms that host the city's active CryptoParty scene. Initiated in 2012 by an Australian privacy activist known by the pseudonym Asher Wolf, CryptoParty is a global DIY-style movement that aims to teach attendees cryptography tools for protecting privacy of data on computers and cellphones.

In a derelict backroom of a former dentist's office and now a music venue called West Germany, a dozen people of varying technical abilities gathered to learn the basics of email and chat encryption and anonymous web browsing.

"All the tools are out there but nobody knows how to use them," says Michael Schmidt, a computer programming teacher who organized the event. "That's where CryptoParty comes in." Crypto skills, he adds, allow individuals to take back their right to privacy.

Germany's stance on encryption has not always been clear. Leaders are split on the topic, some supporting proposals to make the country the top encryption location in the world, and a place where encryption of private communication would be made standard as published in the government's Digital Agenda .

Others have called for increased access to citizens' communication. In February, the German Interior Ministry approved the German Federal Criminal Police Office to use a new version of the Bundestrojaner "federal Trojan": malware that allows telecommunications surveillance on personal cellphones and computers of suspected criminals. The first federal Trojan, introduced in 2011, drew media controversy for its extensive spying capabilities that were said to violate the German constitution.

Such moves in Germany may be following the patterns in the U.S., France and the U.K., which passed laws strengthening intelligence collection powers. A day after last month's bombings in Brussels, German Interior Minister Thomas de Mazière stated on German television network ARD that security should take precedent over privacy in times of "crisis," such as the present. Several politicians in Merkel's conservative CDU party voiced similar views, drawing backlash from the country's Green party and groups like Digitale Gesellschaft, which say such tragedies are used opportunistically to push surveillance-friendly legislature and strengthen a misleading pro-security vs. pro-terrorism spin on digital privacy debates.

Today's security challenges in Europe may cause some in Germany to reconsider stringent stances on digital privacy. David-Wilp, the Marshall Fund fellow, says the Paris attacks acted as "a wakeup call" for Europe.