It's kind of relevant though. Germany had a very bad experiences with being spied on by gestapo informants. After the war, East Germany had a secret service, the Stasi, which massively spied on its citizens. Phone calls were routinely listened to, and countless informants collected information about people they were close to. Trust was a rare commodity. Americans (luckily) never had the experience of living in an authoritarian surveillance state, where everyone could be suspected to spy on you. So it not surprising surveillance isn't taken so lightly today as in the US.
Recommended movie about a stasi agent:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/