Today I learned that the German “Steueridentifikationsnummer”, in English “tax identification number”, was introduced with the warning about, but also the explicit promise that it would not become a universal identifying number for citizens. And that the German constitution or “basic law” also was already used to protect German citizens from such attacks on their privacy. For the first time in 1969 when the government wanted to collect general statistics about German citizens and how they live.

The topic itself came up yesterday in my timeline as part of a news story but today it came up again with more details in my RSS feeds. Yesterday I already wrote an email to my local representative to urge them to find a better solution. To find your local representative just check the official webpage of the German Bundestag and use your postcode.

Note: Spamming representatives with emails that are all looking the same is a stupid idea. As we’ve already seen with the Article 13 debate, it doesn’t help at all. Please write individual messages with your personal concerns and don’t spam.