I'll see your analogy and raise you a begged question. You're starting from the assumption that a collection of personally-identifiable information is free to

I'll see your analogy and raise you a begged question. You're starting from the assumption that a collection of personally-identifiable information is free to share. That isn't necessarily true of such information. If you and I have a conversation about a trade secret of mine, then you are not free to tell someone else about the conversation. There are forms of information and transmission that we've agreed by law to restrict. Why shouldn't we include PII in that? (For another example, consider the privacy of medical data.)