I'm wondering whether the opportunity to legislate consumer protection and privacy laws has long passed because enough companies have sprung up to take advantage of this covert surveillance data flood that there could be relatively severe economic impacts caused by any attempt at trying to dam it.

ie. the political will to make any such changes just may not exist beyond pure lip service to minority who actually know and care.

I've considered what the options would be for something like "privacy-as-a-service", but I get the feeling that such an industry would be more likely to be regulated to death than the one it's in reaction to.

Ironically, "privacy-as-a-service" already exists to protect the financial records of those with big enough financial records to be able to afford said privacy protection service. One law for me, another for thee.