[janAkali]

> Why do you think it's impossible to regulate?

There are three reasons:

- once it's widespread - it's a standard (targeted ads, cookie tracking, SEO)

- we'd need a lot of infrastructure to track all the data recorded, where it goes, how it is processed, etc. etc.. And if a big company is caught.. they'll pay fines for being caught and let away to continue the same shady practices, as we have seen with privacy scandals at Facebook.

> ...but lots of terrible things people used to do got outlawed eventually.

That's the third reason - surveillance is evil and bad, but it will never be advertised as that. It will be something good and convenient with a surveillance as a side effect, similar to social media and smart appliances.

Maybe, I am just too pessimistic and you're right with: 'This process seems slow compared to a human lifespan'.

[marcosdumay]

> we'd need a lot of infrastructure to track all the data recorded, where it goes, how it is processed, etc. etc..

You just need to punish the people using the data. If you can then track down where they got the data from, that's a bonus. And if you can track down where those second ones got their data from, that's an extra bonus. But everything after the people using it is optional.