Comment by Stagnant
1 year ago
I don't think that is a legal requirement in Germany. At least Hetzner lets you rent a German VPS or dedicated server without ID. Though Hetzner may require you to submit an ID if you are flagged by their automated systems upon registration.
It was actually Hetzner that didn't want to provision my VPS without Photo ID. I blanked out the SSN as our government tells us to do and they balked at that as well. After I showed them my government's website explaining how and why to do that they were OK with it but at that point the relationship was already soured and I started looking for alternatives.
Maybe they changed it now but they were asses about it then. I thought it was a legal requirement, they basically said as much though I don't recall the exact details, it was before the pandemic.
Eventually I just moved to Scaleway in France which is much nicer and cheaper and you can even talk to their support on slack.
PS: I don't do anything nefarious on my servers but I just don't want my ID on file anywhere it's not needed.