German data chief attacks credit-profile firms

Germany is known for being particularly sensitive on data privacy issues.

Google Street View - a service combining maps with actual photographs of streets and buildings - had to put blurred houses in its German service in order to be able to run at all in the country. Data protection authorities also took Facebook to court for obliging people to reveal their real names (Facebook won).

But beyond the headline-grabbing news about Google and Facebook, Germans are being surprisingly ...