legislation as blunt instrument

Listening to Christine Varney, an attorney at Hogan & Hartsen, speak at the Identity Mashup panel on Privacy and Civil Liberties in Benign and Hostile Environments.

Hadn't quite thought of it in such a fatalistic manner, but this is what she has to say about legislation:

Legislation is a blunt instrument that's rarely effective, has copious unintended consequences and is usually inspired by big companies.

The government doesn't have nearly as much data on us as the corporations do (witness the telephone records incidents).

Then, Identity Woman Kaliya comments in the IRC:

The issue not being talked about [on the panel] is the way the courts have interpreted the 4th amendment as not applying to third party storage of information/data. Addressing this must be done legally/socially, not through technical protocols.

But if we heed Christine's warning about legislation, we're stuck with finding a social way of addressing it. What's the answer then?

What kind of social recourse do we have, especially after "The Next 9/11" when the government goes after the third parties even harder.

tags: idmashup06, identity, berkman