Ask HN: Privacy and the Absence of data

I've seen a lot of comments on HN about how bad it can be to be human with all the associative flaws being exposed via facebook and google. In essence, how Big Data becomes bad data in the wrong hands. Thus, creating a very new Privacy issue.

I'm curious as to the thoughts of the community, especially on the more scary topics of insurance or employment, how the lack of data can be interpreted. For instance, if 98% of the people give up personal data, then the 2% of people that live private lives are now marginalizable. And, in essence, any bad action that can happen as a consequence of the wrong information leaking can be now (or soon be) the default action taken when no information is available.

It would seem to me that living a private life could become more scary than living a life in the public because people can assume and act on the worst scenario ("oh, math lives a private life, thus he must be sacrificing kittens to his lord diablo").