It seems a net positive overall to me: the system has gone from collecting and storing personal info for no reason, with all the risk that entails (e.g. a data

It seems a net positive overall to me: the system has gone from collecting and storing personal info for no reason, with all the risk that entails (e.g. a data breach that exposes that info) to no longer storing that info (and hopefully no longer collecting it in the first place either). It seems to me like you've built an important auditing tool for picking up areas where the system as a whole was being loose with personal data. If the end goal is to improve privacy, not collecting and storing the data seems a much stronger protection than crossing your fingers hoping someone doesn't go rummaging around looking for personal data.