Comment by greenavocado
2 years ago
There is absolutely no way you can connect to the Internet in Switzerland without a chain of custody of your identity. And in Germany you need to show your ID card or passport to obtain a phone number. Your phone number is required for SMS verification even for free in-store wifi in shopping centers and grocery stores. There is no exception to this except for some rare routers managed by people who accidentally left their router unsecured.
I have to say, Germany doesn't surprise me too much there. The culture in general is in favor of strict rule of law and heavy regulation. I don't mean that disparagingly at all to be clear, that isn't my cup of tea but I don't live there and really don't mind at all how another culture or society prefers to run things.
Switzerland surprises me a bit there though. Presumably the people approved that, I had a Swiss friend while living in the Netherlands and was surprised by how frequently they vote on seemingly minor regulations. I very much appreciate it honestly, both as a much more democratic system and as a way of making sure the government is both slower moving and checked by the people. I have to assume the Swiss voted to allow such a regulation, curious if you know more about how that was actually legislated though.