The value of this data to the NSA, Mossad etc is probably the only thing keeping it secure.

Never in human history has a government had the means to simultaneously spy on millions of people, to use everyday private conversations to categorise them into various threats to the state, and better yet these tech companies can still sell the commercially valuable side of this to advertisers.

Advertisers are the reason we have this problem. The only way to stop them is legislation.

People could return to burning down enterprises that they find unsavory or detrimental to society, such as they did during the industrial revolution, but this is problematic in that it's violent and not something the modern person often considers as viable. A part of why people consider this unviable now is in-part due to the consequences of these surveilance technologies. It's difficult to accomplish a revolution when everyone is being spied on all the time.

“Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on”

- Larry Ellison (Oracle Corporation)

The shortest path answer is a bit too caveman-esque to survive its application to reality.

That said, I think there is a lot of appeal to go hunting for firms, since it really feels like corporations and their owners are engaging in predatory behavior as opposed to customer centric behavior.

Advertisers may be the reason we got this problem, but the security state is the reason we can't fix this problem and it only gets worse.

As much as the problem is advertising the government allows it because the government buys the data!

Well, not the only way: widespread slaughter would probably work too.