Just to clarify for everyone not familiar with how cell broadcast works: It's entirely passive/unacknowledged, much like IP multicast on a local link (without IGMP).

The risk it poses to users' privacy is about the same as that of an FM radio receiver.

In Germany, unfortunately "something about privacy" seems to have become the default argument against anything that a party either can't or doesn't want to implement for one reason or another.

Strangely enough, privacy concerns are rarely raised when it comes to paper-based processes or obsolete technologies such as fax, which authorities still feel comfortable with.

Fefe has a post (in German) about that, and the first excuse was uttered by someone in a high position who despite his job title apparently knew nothing about what he was talking about, and that the paragraph with the excuse got changed, after "the censor returned from peeing":

http://blog.fefe.de/?ts=a1a72533

Or rather, after some public outrage on Twitter about said incompetency.