It might be that the gravity of the second sentence in your comment is lost on the non-Germans here, so let me fill in some more detail: The protests and controversy regarding the census led to a legal dispute that reached the constitutional court, from whose ruling a new fundamental right called "informational self-determination"[1] is derived.
This is unique to Germany.
To understand why this happened, you have to remember that during the 80s, most Germans had personal experience of organized privacy invasions with extreme consequences. A "Blockwart"[2] was an NSDAP official _from your neighborhood_ with the right and duty to sniff out any "ideologically problematic" behaviour and report it to the Gestapo.
Germany has a __fundamental right on "informational self-determination"__ [1].
From the wiki article:
<< On that occasion, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that: "[...] in the context of modern data processing, the protection of the individual against unlimited collection, storage, use and disclosure of his/her personal data is encompassed by the general personal rights of the [German Constitution]. This basic right warrants in this respect the capacity of the individual to determine in principle the disclosure and use of his/her personal data. Limitations to this informational self-determination are allowed only in case of overriding public interest." >>
This is still quite interesting in several current debates.
This is unique to Germany.
To understand why this happened, you have to remember that during the 80s, most Germans had personal experience of organized privacy invasions with extreme consequences. A "Blockwart"[2] was an NSDAP official _from your neighborhood_ with the right and duty to sniff out any "ideologically problematic" behaviour and report it to the Gestapo.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informational_self-determinatio... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockleiter
@Argorak: I usually just post a google translate link of the German page. Better than nothing and so far nobody has complained.