The odd thing is that Canada's version of a data privacy act, PIPEDA, was enacted 14 years ago (2000) specifically so that people could trust private corporations with their data while e.g. shopping online [1].

In the end, the problem with these sorts of things is that once people are making millions doing something that should be illegal, they have the resources to ensure that it never becomes illegal.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Information_Protection...