This is to protect Americans from companies from selling Americans information to other companies resulting in junk mail and junk emails. An example is from a yahoo article, this family in Illinois received junk mail from their local Office Max, they had just had a family death, their daughter died in a car accident. The letter stated "Name of Person or Daughter killed in a car crash" this goes to show how personal information is easily sold from corporation to company etc. Its totally wrong and should be limited so they have to ask permission from Americans.
Article: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/family-tragedy-landed-retailers-mailing-00...