They said something similar to this about the proposed UK national ID system, then shortly afterwards unveiled plans for an incredibly centralised system with a slow transition leading from voluntary to mandatory. Fortunately these plans were recently scrapped.

I think the big picture here is that various governments for a variety of reasons foresee difficult times ahead and are trying, falteringly and often swimming against public opinion, to move towards a state of affairs where they have a greater degree of authoritarian control than was the case in the past - perhaps similar to China, which may become the new model state/economy which others seek to emulate.