1. Private citizens don't value their privacy. They make stupid assumptions that *somebody* is protecting them somehow, but neither the government nor the corporations are doing that job.
2. Corporations are making big money off of your data. They are interested in making more, not less, so privacy will continue to be eroded without end.
3. Corporations gather the data legally that would be difficult for authorities to gather without probable cause. It is an unholy partnership: the private sector gathers the data, then the government comes and takes whatever they want with a blanket subpoena or National Security Letter. Building a dossier on a citizen used to be a costly and time-consuming exercise, now it is a snap. Three quick hits will get an agent an incredible amount of information: Google file, your credit report, and your cellphone logs. Extras like Facebook and Twitter logs fill in the details. It is an agent's dream, all paid for by corporate money.
What can you do about it? If you are addicted to being online, nothing will help you. If you can't turn off your cellphone without having an anxiety attack, then you might as well put a dog collar around your neck and wait for them to snap the leash onto it. For every browser trick, pseudonym, proxy server, etc., there are smart people looking at ways to finger you anyway. You just can't avoid it.
Things will only change after authorities and insiders are discovered routinely abusing the system, and maybe not even then. Once you lose control of your private information, you can never really get it back again.
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