I guess I poorly expressed what I wanted to say. I did mean to say that he/she does not have an expectation of privacy while being on the job but does have one while off the job. And yes, I do think that is a trade-off because the otherwise reasonable expectation of having privacy is being restricted. Nonetheless I think this is the right way to do things.
But what about the public employee's right to privacy?
Of course he has this right, but not when he is executing his public duties. There frequently have to be trade-offs. Different societies will make different choices. In this particular area I am happier with the choices that mine made than, for example, the choices that were made in the US.
Such laws make it that much harder for an individual to record wrongdoing by government agents.
I am not entirely sure, but I believe it is legal to observe and record officials while engaging in their public duties. At least I have never come across anything in the news that would have indicated this not to be the case and I would be greatly surprised if a case like that would not have been front-page news if it ever did happen.
Yes there is a right to privacy. But when you take your private activities into a public space, you are choosing not to exercise that right. If you have decided that your privacy means so little to you that you are going to flaunt your activities where anyone can see them,
...
a) It's not "anyone" but typically a very small subset of "anyone", and b) you're wrong when there are applicable laws!
why should the state protect this right when you won't take even the most basic steps to secure your own privacy?
Easy -- because we elected politicians that actually implemented our expectations of such rights. Yes, the electoral process works every now and then!
The only difference between one person seeing you on the street, and having that data searchable on the internet is to what extent that person exercises his free speech rights. If you have a problem with that, you have a problem with free speech. Your position is blatantly authoritarian.
If you have a secret you want to keep, don't tell anyone. Once the secret is out, you can't stop other people from telling it without violating their rights.
While I understand your point, I don't see everything as black and white as you do. I think that what we are dealing with are two rights that are conflicting here. The right to free speech and the right to privacy. When you have two rights conflicting like this it is always a judgment call as to how to resolve this for any given situation. Obviously we differ on this!
Also, I find it kind of ironic that you keep calling me and/or the German state authoritarian because of this because a large area of what German privacy laws are about is protecting the individual from the state, but not only the state, tracking them and correlating data about them. I, for my part, think of that as the exact opposite of authoritarian! I don't want a Big Brother, whether it is my government or large corporations!
You have no privacy in public. You can't legislate around the simple fact that other people can see your face. If you really need your privacy on public streets, wear a mask. Restricting the ability of photographers to engage in their craft in public spaces because you can't apply a little common sense is needlessly authoritarian.
There is a huge difference between a few people seeing you in public and anyone, word-wide being able to search for pictures of you in various public situations. I don't see how anybody can equate those things! Also laws in probably every country restrict the ability of various people to engage in their craft. My gripe, for example, is not with people taking pictures of something where I may appear in the background, but in making these pictures available to a broad public. I'd like to add that I am a German national living in the US. And, I am frequently appalled by how US corporations can share and sell personal data about me just so they can try to more effectively harass me with their advertising garbage and/or use it to potentially discriminate against me, based on medical conditions etc. that I may or may not have! While I may not be a typical German in a lot of ways (I am not a soccer fan, for example), I sure am in terms of valuing my privacy!
Imagine that, restrictive laws in Germany. You'd think they would have learned something about authoritarianism, but no.
Rather than saying "restrictive laws" you might as well say "laws" as most laws are restrictive! Also what you call "restrictive" in this case, I call "protecting my privacy", something that I value quite a bit!
I think it comes from Alemanic tribes whose descendents live in parts of Southern Germany and Switzerland. In Germany it is mostly the area of the modern state of Baden-Württemberg.
Your right
What about my left?
two "l"'s actually platter, a type of plate larger than a dining plate on which food is served,
I knew what "platter" was, I was just curious whether there was such a word as "plater" and if it existed, what it meant!
I find that just because the spellchecker doesn't highlight something certainly doesn't imply that it is correct. Just look at how many people there are that can't seem to distinguish between "their" and "there" or "it is", when written as a contraction and "its", the possessive pronoun. I guess after all proofreading is still useful!
on a silver plater
English not being my native language, I had to look this one up:
plater
[pley-ter; for 2 also plat-er]
–noun
1. a person or thing that plates.
2. an inferior race horse.
Standard blu-ray discs, which are the same size already store 50GB and there are already blu-ray solutions that are supposed to store multiple times that. So, at most 10x, certainly nowhere near 100x!
So let me get this straight. I can't afford an iphone, but taxes are being taken from my meager paycheck in order to give them to police officers and soldiers?
You probably can't afford a tank or fighter plane either and taxes are taken from your paycheck in order to give them to soldiers. What's your point?
It seems that more and more mathematicians are using a new, high level language named "research student".
