I had similar thoughts myself while in Indonesia, being driven at 100mph in a car with no seatbelts while passing a man driving on a gutted lorry that was little more than a trailer without a cab - just a driver's seat. At first, worry...then you just relax and feel free :)
The Israeli taxi drivers are the same. Always on the phone, non-hands free.
Despite some bizarre and draconian laws (there was a huge uproar over online gaming from Internet cafés a few years ago, because of Greece's gaming laws), the Greeks have a generally admirable approach to their relationship with the state.
They have relatively few CCTV cameras, as a result of a visceral loathing of the invasion of people's privacy.
The approach to policing on the islands tends to be quite lax. Blind eyes are turned, so long as you aren't out of favour and aren't causing anybody any trouble. You are free to mind your own business. It's a double-edged sword, though, as anybody who has been a victim of domestic abuse in Greece will tell you. Domestic abuse has tended to be policed 'domestically'.