There isn't a material difference between those two things. What precisely is private information - outside of information stored solely inside your head. Even medical records can be made public through certain actions so pretty much everything is potentially public information.

Making things easier to find can be a threat - it's why there's a lot of compelling discussion around websites that take rosters of arrest records and post them on big scary websites along with pictures and lurid descriptions of the person's crime - offering to remove the information for a fee.