Privacy is taken incredibly seriously in most of Europe and breaking privacy is one of the few things that get people really upset. Politicians can have mistresses, fiddle the rules, employ their spouses on their staff and no one really cares. Pry into people's lives and the screams can be heard all the way to China.
Take Google street view, for example. Every home and business has the right to demand their home is pixellated out to protect their privacy. Google must comply with all such requests.