Thanks, most privacy activists conveniently forget this argument. In most cases, the absolute approach taken by most privacy activists ends up hurting Students/Patients/Customers etc. since Universities/Hospitals & Insurers/Companies cite privacy laws to escape from the burden of accountability. At the same time the entities are free to mine their own data under guise of "Performance enhancement".

Essentially stringent privacy laws often have adverse effect where activities that might be of public benefit Research on Rare diseases/Teacher Accountability/Class action lawsuits are curtailed.