If we don’t believe in our society, if we need to carry guns all the time to protect us from the anarchy, it is of course really hard to believe we can build enough protections to prevent retargeted adverts.

and that's the issue. now what is easier to enforce? banning of targeted ads? or banning of collection of data?

laws can not protect us from everything. because if they did we'd loose all of our freedom. laws need to focus on protecting us from things from which we can't protect ourselves. that is already difficult enough to decide.

We don’t need a lot of laws for data privacy, it’s mostly making looking at someone’s data a bit like looking at bodily fluids - socially unacceptable unless under certain circumstances

but ads are not the only problem. we'd also need severe, and i mean bankrupting a company severe punishment for data breaches if we want to get companies to keep our data secure.

in a very advanced future where tech is so advanced that anyone can easily scan a planet to get the data they want, punishment for the abuse of data is the only option. but until then, i think we are better off to simply prevent the collection of data in the first place.