Unregulated capitalism happened. Some people figured out that acquiring data on anyone and everyone, from every source possible, and collating it, could be use

Unregulated capitalism happened. Some people figured out that acquiring data on anyone and everyone, from every source possible, and collating it, could be used to make a profit. In the absence of any laws forbidding this, unregulated capitalism did what it always does: strip-mined the fuck out of this newly-discovered resource, without a single care for any damage done to the world in the name of their profits. Anyone who had moral qualms with this was ignored in favor of increasingly absurd piles of money for the people running the companies doing this. These companies now have enough cash on hand to make it much harder to pass laws forbidding what they are doing.