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Makes a lot of sense with German culture IMO. There's a culture of doing your job very well, but not much of a culture of thinking outside of the box or shaking things up.

Some Herr Doktor probably followed all the best practices to implement "trust zones, certificates, authorization features, and much more" in the ID, doing their job really well. But actually changing the processes to use those features is not anyone's job, and might actually eliminate a lot of jobs, so it never happened.



I think modern political criticisms might be too dismissive of inefficient bureaucratic developments, or we might be taking criticisms too seriously.

They might be slow, complicated, budgeted terribly, unbelievably incompetent by standards of typical for-profit mega corporation, but a lot of those projects work at first try and works for decades, in the end.

SLS capsule came back in one piece on first try. That German ID system probably works too. And that’s great.


I can believe they work for decades, but mostly because nobody believes they’ll do any better the next time.


It is good this project is failing.

Such a thing will never fly in the US. Both the left and right will rightfully or wrongfully oppose it for different reasons.

Edit: E.g. see the left opposing voter ids in the US.


>Edit: E.g. see the left opposing voter ids in the US.

FYI, the left wasn't opposing voter IDs. The left was opposing Voter ID laws, which required a voter to have an ID, while selectively providing these IDs to the population.

That's a uniquely American problem. We wouldn't have an issue with a Voter ID law if everyone was guaranteed to have a state ID, regardless of where they live, whether they have a car or not, and whether they have money to pay for it (it should be free).


Personal ID arent for free in Germany (though not expensive, ca. 30 EUR), they are mandatory to wear and you have to show if you want to elect.

No IDs in an election are a culture war issue in US and lefties argue irrationally on the topic. Btw, I am not a Trump supporter.


>No IDs in an election are a culture war issue in US and lefties argue irrationally on the topic.

Do you live in the US?

If not, looks like you're missing the important context that the Republican party makes access to facilities that issue IDs limited.

For most Americans, the primary ID is the driver's license.

And for those that don't drive, it's... non-driver license, also issued by department of motor vehicles.

Which is often not accessible by public transportation.

And whose locations strategically avoid black and poor small towns.

So no, it's not a "culture war", and the arguments are rational once you learn the context of the issue at hand.


It goes also with a different aspect of German culture.

They rolled that out together with finger printing.

People value their privacy here and this was overstepping too many boundaries.

Those features have also never been explained to the average Michel here. Even IT interested people are not aware or understand the good things about it.


I think the fingerprinting happens for all the EU chips right? It allows for those automated gates at the airport where you need to verify your fingerprint.


Wow, after living in Germany for 5 years.. I think I agree with you completely. That last sentence is the best description of the problem I have read.


Absolutely spot on




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