Any data hoarding and/or selling of this kind by anyone—credit card companies, loyalty cards, ISPs, Google, Amazon, creepy phone-wifi location spying in stores, anyone and anything like this—is de facto spying for the government. As has been discussed many times, keeping oneself clean of this spying (nearly impossible, but for the sake of argument) isn't enough because others' data leaks yours.

Anyone against government access to this stuff ought to be for strict limits/prohibitions on its collection by any entity. It's toxic and should be eliminated.

There is an entire industry of data aggregators and consumer profilers that has existed for decades, long before the internet landed on the scene. These players have been funneling data and providing search services to the three letter orgs in exchange for freedom from any legal encumbrance. There is no way to stop this from happening. They are the main reason why the US has such weak data protection laws in the first place.

Well, the way to stop it would be to outlaw it. More difficult and niche/low-visibility issues have been fought and won, over time. Not impossible, though not easy, and you'd be up against a maybe-unprecedented number of lobbying dollars.

> "from any legal encumbrance"

Do you have any anecdotes or links where data collectors exchanged favor with ABCs for legal violations?

> a cashless society is far easier to control as purchases can be blocked at anytime as a goods or services can be declared illegal

Certainly easier, but it wouldn't stop trading (IIRC, there are already cases of, e.g., swapping stolen goods for drugs).

Won't stop people trying to get rid of cash though :/