oats

Google is not breaking the (German) law here, it actually is your responsibility as a user to not spy on people. Failure to do so means up to three years in jail, for a first offender most likely a fine. And your device that you used to break the law might get confiscated.

The later was already the case when people used radar warner apps (banned on Germany as well) and lost their smartphone for that.

No, the user breaks this law, not the manufacturer. So the loophole for google is, they don’t care about you.

I didn’t check the actual law, always a good idea to do so.

So, §201 StGB actually covers both, it is forbidden to “aufnehmen” (record) as well as “mithören” (spy on). Bonus, its forbidden to cite transcription (im Wortlaut mitteilen).

Its an old law, going back to video cameras with magnetic tape and actually tapping a phone line. So it was used quite often, including the mentioned fake surveillance cameras, that didn’t record or even view anything but seemed to the public they did.

When dashcams became a thing people would be sentenced for using them. These days you can use dashcams, but never save for more than 24h or show the recording to anyone but the police/court.

I guess the law is a relict of living next door to Stasi, but its really just a guess of mine.

Not a lawyer, but as far as I got it, the storing isn’t the punishable part, the recording is.

You can’t have security cameras filming public spaces (like the road in front of your house). Even if its dummies, as people couldn’t tell the difference whether the camera actually films them or not.

Illegal in Germany. You may not record conversations, if you try to enter something like that as evidence you’ll get punished as well.

I suspect there are many countries with laws like that, and if your phone actually disables the feature when you enter them or just let’s you hang to dry…