tax-financed officials responsible for their doings - why not do the same with private firms? After all, they handle a lot of our resources, finances and time - and they generally make up the backbone of the societal structure in most western countries. If

Would there be costs? Sure, but those would probably be offset by increased efficiency, and with modern technology and high speed communications, those cost could probably be lowered substantially. Would it hurt these companies if the data got out? Sure, but on the other hand, as we have seen in this case, data is bound to eventually leak anyway. Regulating the release of data would level the playing field, and in cases of very sensitive information there could be exemptions to handle them. Overall, I'm having a difficulty understanding what exactly should cause us to leave the companies' processing of information alone. When the rest of the society are moving to a more open informational structure, the companies should follow. Whether they want to or not.