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Are there equivalent services that broker data of citizens in other countries? As a non-American, my layperson understanding of American legislation is that it's extremely lax when it comes to protecting individuals from privacy invasions like this. Is anyone aware of laws in the EU/Canada/Australia that would prevent this kind of thing happening?

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i've never seen this in Canada but even in the U.S., I don't think it's being misused the way that people are suggesting here.

I have referred thousands of callers to TheWorkNumber (and competitors like 'Thomas and Company') in my years working at a call centre and the reason is always the same: income verification for somebody who needs to get approved for a mortgage loan application or something else like that.

I don't actually see any suggestion that the salary data is being "sold" per se rather than just being used for legitimate income verification purposes

From what I read in EU the pay is considered personal information and is thus is protected by GDPR. If your employer wanted to share it with 3rd party for something like this, he would need your explicit approval for it.

Exactly this, plus you'd have the right at any time to inspect your own data, or withdraw permissions at any time.

I think in Sweden all tax returns are public.

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