Taking on the Internet Giants: Germany Applies Brakes to Google & Co.

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It is a new debate filled with misunderstandings on all sides. That applies also to the corporations involved, which like to point out that many politicians are not even prepared to engage in technical conversations about the Internet, and that even if they are, they are often clueless as to how Internet platforms work and make money.

Google's recently reacted in a very simplistic way to German objections by having some of its young creative employees paint the Street View cars, which were previously painted a sinister black, in bright colors. They apparently thought that this would somehow de-demonize the service.

Facebook is at least publicly signaling its understanding of the attacks. "The Internet is revolutionizing our society, and it's understandable that politicians are worried," says Richard Allan. He is, in a sense, the online network's chief diplomat for Europe, and he spends a lot of time traveling and listening to people's fears and frustrations, as well as explaining to politicians how Facebook actually works. It helps that Allan was once a politician himself, as a member of the British parliament.

Facebook takes cultural sensitivities seriously, says Allan, but he insists that many in Europe are under the false impression that it is the Internet companies that profit most from the relationship between firms and their users. "It feels different to us," says Allan, who talks of a powerful Web community. "If it doesn't accept something, it lets us know -- millions of times over."

Vast Amounts of Data

The magnitude and power of users is currently the company's strongest argument against political regulatory ambitions. In the past, says Allan, politicians have expended much of their effort dealing with large corporations that, like telephone companies, own vast amounts of data. "But now millions of individual citizens who publicize their data with us would be regulated," says Allan. He notes that although Facebook offers its users a platform to express themselves, "we don't see our users' content as ours." In that case, who should be held responsible for the data?

The worries coming from Germany must seem quaint to big American companies like Facebook and Google. The concern, for example, that these companies, thanks to the ability to link data, know more about their users than individuals believe they have revealed "is somewhat foreign to us," says US Web expert David Weinberger. "We aren't overly concerned that computers somewhere are piecing things together using algorithms. They're just computers."

Google's Street View project, for example, has not triggered any significant outcry in the United States. US regulators are more concerned about whether all Internet providers and users have the same ability to access the Web. The call for more regulation to improve data privacy, on the other hand, is "rather European," says Weinberger.

Nevertheless, US companies must take it seriously. Even in the United States, a class action suit was recently filed against Google for violating privacy, because the search engine transferred data from its Gmail email service to its new social network Buzz without asking users.

New Laws

Canadian lawmakers recently required Facebook to promise improved data privacy. A parliamentary official stridently voiced her concern that Buzz might not satisfy Canadian privacy protection standards. Spain recently introduced a rule requiring new Facebook users to be at least 14.

In Italy, a court recently sentenced three Google executives to six months in prison after high-school students in Turin placed a video online, using Google, in which they abused a handicapped teenager. The court accused the executives of defamation and violation of privacy.

The German actions have seemed somewhat helpless by comparison. This became all the more obvious last week when the Bundestag approved the establishment of its Internet commission of inquiry. FDP politician Jimmy Schulz, speaking to an almost deserted floor, called the commission a "milestone for politics in Germany." Jens Koeppen, a member of the commission who belongs to the CDU, also holds another office: He is the head of the parliament's classic car club.

The new commission is expected to submit its recommendations by 2012. To that end, 17 experts will soon join the 17 members of parliament appointed to the commission.

The commission "will wear itself out in the attempt to catch up with a train that has already left the station," says network expert Peter Kruse, noting that a commission that is already behind the curve cannot hope to keep up with the dynamics of the Internet. "Understanding the Web cannot be the commission's outcome; it has to be its precondition."

PETRA BORNHÖFT, ISABEL HÜLSEN, SEBASTIAN KRETZ, MARTIN U. MÜLLER, MARCEL ROSENBACH, THOMAS TUMA

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• Part 1: Germany Applies Brakes to Google & Co.
• Part 2: A Reputation as a Data Hoarder
• Part 3: Misunderstandings on All Sides