Yes we were. We just did not all have handheld computers and widespread social media 'addiction' in that decade. Here are quite a few articles detailing privacy and data protection from the prior decade.

https://iapp.org/news/a/2008-04-data-protection-and-outsourc... https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/09/secur... https://www.geek.com/news/data-protection-authority-in-greec... https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/business/30privacy.html https://www.wired.com/2007/12/why-anonymous-data-sometimes-i... https://www.economist.com/international/2007/09/27/learning-...