Here in the United States the press and politicians pay a lot of lip service to caring about privacy, but given that the modern zeitgeist is that all-regulation-is-evil-no-matter-what -- lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have refused to actually implement privacy protections for the modern age. The result has been an avalanche of new barrier-pushing tracking technology with absolutely no consumer protection lines drawn. The result? AT&T works for the NSA, ISPs lie about the sale of clickstream data, supercookies are undeletable, and both your location and interests are tracked constantly -- down to the second -- without you really having much of a say about it.

EULAs only cryptically inform users of what's tracked and sold, and opt-out mechanisms may or may not work -- if they even exist. Good consumer protection laws would at least give some power back to consumers in terms of what data is collected, how long, and who it gets sold to. Instead, we've seen a total government logjam on this front punctuated by hollow lip service, courtesy of the lobbying muscle of the telecom, advertising/marketing, and content industries.

Interestingly in the UK the government has managed to stand up to this lobbying onslaught and is now considering new privacy protection rules that would give some power back to the consumer. According to a European Commission statement, a new overhaul to 1995 privacy rules would give consumers a slew of additional rights, including the "right to be forgotten" (having your collected data deleted) and making data collection opt in.

As you might expect, editorials galore sponsored by the content, software and marketing industries (some clearly disclosed, some not) are popping up Internet wide arguing that any privacy rules that actually work would "chill innovation and digital progress." The United States government (of the people?) meanwhile is threatening Europe on industry's behalf, arguing that protecting the privacy of consumers might actually cost some money.

There's no doubt the initial EU proposal has problems when it comes to nailing down moving targets, holes will be punched through the rules at the behest of intelligence organizations, and the very idea you can fully delete online activity is likely naieve. Getting privacy protection modernized in the age of deep packet inspection certainly won't be easy.

While the industries impacted are arguing that they'd like to "have serious conversations" on the "right" kinds of rules, these claims have proven repeatedly disingenuous. The "conversation" so far has consisted of lobbyists battling tirelessly to derail any real privacy law creation. All of the industries impacted have made it abundantly clear they do not want real protections of any kind hampering the billions to be made from new ad technologies -- particularly if the rules are of the opt in variety.