The idea
Stop sharing excessive private data with other countries, such as the US (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/10549331.stm as an example). “Nothing to hide if you’ve done nothing wrong” does not wash – especially with data leaks, mismanagement of data, and data errors – all data begins life as a manual keyboard entry by a human being and becomes extremely difficult to find in a large dataset.
Why is it important?
The data may not be correct, leaked or abused. Ramifications generally occur when it is too late and places utmost stress on individuals to resolve, such as ID theft or refusal of entry to a country.
Privacy is extremely important, and the government and its agencies need not access the information unless a warrant is made, much less a foreign country for which we have no say in their politics, laws and justice systems.