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In Australia, phone directories don't generally include mobile phone numbers, and with the massive shift from landline phones to mobile phones over the past decade, this means many people are completely gone from the phone directory. I suspect it may be a similar situation in other countries - the phone directory still exists, but is increasingly useless.

The view of the sensitivity of phone numbers and home address as PII has changed with this trend too.

Interesting. In Sweden, mobile phone numbers are listed in the public directories (at least for me and my friends).

Well, I can opt-out of a phonebook, at least here in Germany for decades already. I can't do that on this leak.

In France you are asked if your phone number should be listed. I do not remember if this is opt-in or opt-out.

Usually those phone directories don't include other personal information, like gender.

They actually do in Sweden and some also include all sorts of things such as social security numbers, criminal sentences etc. Very few things in Sweden that are not public data.

The Netherlands changed that policy after WWII.