Germany leans heavily to more and more privacy because they have the experience in recent memory of what a government can do with vast information collection and centralized authority.
America leans lightly towards more and more centralization of data because they have the experience in recent memory of what individuals who "slip through the cracks" can do. So in Germany we see decisions like this and in the US we see police using privately-curated DNA databases to defrost the cold case of a serial killer, and they're lauded as heroes.
(It's worth noting, of course, that this is all relative. Relative to most of Europe, the US is starting from a place of massive decentralization and minimal individual-tracking. Some people still find social security numbers controversial).