I'm not against all regulations - some can be useful - they just need to be implemented with great caution - ideally in a way that is very easy and clear to implement. In theory I don't see how regulations could avoid security breaches anyway (which I think is a greater problem). It'd be interesting to fine large companies with security breaches to encourage better tech, but then they'd never report it.

Security breaches aren't the problem with harvesting private individuals' data. It's a matter of ownership and sovereignty, in the large and small.

How harmful a security breach is depends on how much private data about users was stored though. So even though security breaches will still happen, they will cause less harm if less sensitive data is leaked as a result.

When you say "regulations", I hear "market protections", "rule of law", and "fair and impartial judiciary".

"regulations could avoid security breaches anyway"

Translucent Databases 2nd Ed: Confusion, Misdirection, Randomness, Sharing, Authentication And Steganography To Defend Privacy http://a.co/c78Gij0

TL;DR: All demographic records are stored encrypted, are no longer retrievable if you lose the signing key. Think "proper password storage" extended to all things.

Bonus: Support for GDPR "right to be forgotten" for free. Just erase the key(s).