And a public ledger is not very... private. My GMail account is more private than Bitcoin because at least there would need to be a valid court order to breach my private email messages. Bitcoin transactions can be triangulated by anybody on the Internet.
Triangulated? Your Bitcoin transactions are as private as your pseudonym under an Internet page, with the exception that transactions don't have an IP address. If you take precautions, it can be pretty private.
If you send an email with GMail that you don't want your spouse to know about, you are safe, for instance. With Bitcoin that is a lot harder, and far out of reach for most consumers.
I'd argue that if you just want to hide yourself from your spouse, both are equally private.
(Unless your spouse works for the NSA, lol)