I find it really intriguing hearing about all these data breaches - never before in human history have we been able to store so much information about ourselves

I find it really intriguing hearing about all these data breaches - never before in human history have we been able to store so much information about ourselves and our world and how readily accessible that information is, just sitting on hard disks around the world. Which makes me wonder, is there information that's leaked so much it's no longer "private"? Names, addresses, phone numbers, contacts lists, photos, emails, cloud documents, IP address logs, search history...It's all there, waiting to be leaked... And why the insistence on storing information for an unlimited period of time - it should be illegal to store data above 5+ years without explicit consent from the user (after reviewing the data and clicking "I am okay with this data continuing to be stored").