I find it bizarre that after Stasi and other stuff, German people are not opposed to massive personal data collection.
It's the same thing, except that instead of the state your data is owned by private entity that can technically do anything they want with it. It is scary.
I mean ... Stasi and Gestapo kept different kind of data. You would have to do a more and different kind of analysis to make it into argument that makes sense. And seems like the people who throw around Stasi dont really know what that organization done.
Foreigner's two cents: it's not that they don't care---the abysmal availability of Google Street View attests to that among others---but rather a combination of (a) masses (and hence bureaucrats) not having as comprehensive a definition of "personal-data invasive" as those that work in tech and (b) this German trust in any document that can be ratified/made into a legal proclamation.
(a) isn't really uniquely German, of course. Most people not in tech, though privacy-conscious, won't really bat an eyelid on Windows 10 telemetry, Instagram's excess of data gathered, etc.
With (b), I bet the Universities are satisfied that Microsoft has all clearances/certifications to be GDPR-compatible or whatever else. That pacifies their cynicism. If shit hits the fan, the courts can worry about it. The important thing is they checked all the boxes in the paperwork with sufficient diligence.
Again, just my two cents. I'm not even European but it seems to me Switzerland in real-life is what Germany is in most people's imaginations. But again, that's just more of my opinions.
