Any company which has access to personal data of a user or customer shall be required to obtain the permission of such user or customer before collecting or storing such data. Privacy policies regarding collection of user data shall be required by law to be "opt-in", rather than "opt-out".
Why is this important?
Amid all the alarm about NSA and other government agencies spying on US citizens, we have ignored that fact that it all starts with data collection by private sector companies. This data hoarding, largely without the consent or knowledge of most users, poses a threat to our freedom and autonomy, regardless of whether NSA is using it. The very existence of such data on such a scale is a permanent risk to a free society.
