Most of this privacy fetish is purely performative though. The Schufa is a dystopian data collector with information on every German and despite a token focus on data privacy politicians pass more and more surveillance laws like using Palantir for the police and crackdowns on free speech and protesting in general.

In Germany the state collects church tax if you are catholic or protestant. Half the healthcare system belongs to the church and is pumped full of money by the federal budget so they (the church) don’t have to pay much and still get all of the publicity. And due to being managed by the church many hospitals don’t offer abortions and it is harder for people who arent members of the church to get a job there. Dont even get me started on the separate work laws in christian institutions which forbid striking and pay different than non church jobs.