A recent poll by Business Week suggests that only 9 percent of Internet users trust privacy on the World Wide Web. Privacy on the Internet is nonexistent. What is disturbing is the federal government's utter lack of competence in addressing the problem. In fact, it has pointed its efforts in quite the opposite direction, with paranoid restrictions on encryption. In the last round of foolishness, the government decided to let the industry regulate itself.
Large companies have no interest in the security of consumers.
The industry leaders will just go crazy trying to make gathering market data easier for themselves. What is really needed is a clear set of laws restricting companies' invasions of our private lives.