Yeah there needed to be privacy laws passed back then. It's going to very difficult to do now because there's so much money involved. Personally I think 90% of the "data-driven economy" is bullshit and we'd be better off without it. But when Google, Facebook, etc. are saying "if you pass this law, we will lay of X% of our workforce" it's difficult to to do, even though those companies will likely lay off those workers regardless.
Sometimes I think of an alternate reality where Al Gore was president back then. He invented the internet! Yeah, I know that thing was just GOP disinformation, but he did actually care about technology. Maybe technology growth could've gone down a better path. Instead we got Dubya and a war in Iraq.