It is difficult to battle this problem when so many others don't seem to understand or care about it, but I say: Fight the good fight! I disagree with your use of the term "data mining", though. "Data mining" is a sophisticated statistical analysis of data (see, for instance: http://matlabdatamining.blogspot.com/), whereas what I think you're talking about is "data snooping" or "data theft".

nightcats writes "According to a story from the Rocky Mountain news, Qwest has received retaliatory action from the NSA for refusing to cooperate in the Bush administration's domestic data-mining activity (i.e., spying on Americans). Please get the terminology straight! "Data mining" does not mean "spying". Data mining is a sophisticated process of statistical analysis. The article to which you refer (at RockyMountainNews.com) does not use the term "data mining". Privacy implications arise from the uncontrolled and unmonitored gathering and sharing of private data, not statistical analysis performed afterward.