In many EU countries insurance companies and banks can't do social network analysis of your public Facebook profile or buy your private data from Facebook.
Some countries have laws that limit the use of the information in public records. Even if some party is allowed to collect the information, like phone company, they are not automatically allowed to use the data in any way they please.
There is also huge difference of having access to data you need and keeping and collecting records of people using publicly available data.
US has very backwards privacy laws. Basically once your data is out there anyone can do anything they please with it. This does not mean that this should be the case or that rest of the world acts like this.
Some countries have laws that limit the use of the information in public records. Even if some party is allowed to collect the information, like phone company, they are not automatically allowed to use the data in any way they please.
There is also huge difference of having access to data you need and keeping and collecting records of people using publicly available data.
US has very backwards privacy laws. Basically once your data is out there anyone can do anything they please with it. This does not mean that this should be the case or that rest of the world acts like this.