>Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems the most anyone can do with such data at the moment is ad profiling
You're wrong. We already see systems in the wild that gather this data to make financial decisions regarding you (whether or not to extend credit, etc), to track you (particularly useful in litigation), to perform open-source investigations of you without your knowledge, to make decisions regarding your eligibility for various services and insurance, to determine your access to information, etc.
Regulation of companies that collect personal information already exists, and already exists for well defined reasons.
Since you're Canadian, feel free to look up PIPEDA and your local provincial equivalents. Largely, the substantive portions of the legislation are directly lifted from the following OECD report: http://www.oecd.org/internet/ieconomy/oecdguidelinesonthepro...
You're wrong. We already see systems in the wild that gather this data to make financial decisions regarding you (whether or not to extend credit, etc), to track you (particularly useful in litigation), to perform open-source investigations of you without your knowledge, to make decisions regarding your eligibility for various services and insurance, to determine your access to information, etc.
Regulation of companies that collect personal information already exists, and already exists for well defined reasons.
Since you're Canadian, feel free to look up PIPEDA and your local provincial equivalents. Largely, the substantive portions of the legislation are directly lifted from the following OECD report: http://www.oecd.org/internet/ieconomy/oecdguidelinesonthepro...
In particular, look at Part Two, which is the basis for the overarching privacy framework in Canada: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-8.6/page-11.html#h...