So as a user my preference not to be fingerprinted or tracked takes a back seat in the name of fraud detection?
So we should allow police to wiretap in the name of crime prevention?
Admittedly, that was the first time I read about fingerprinting in this manner and bypassing explicit privacy protections is definitely not something I would want for my future self ( or that my of my family ).
In other words, I think you are right. Privacy probably needs to be codified. It may seem hard to do given existing entrenched interests, but you have to start somewhere. Not that long ago people thought buying people is 'just the way world works'. Things can change. Slowly, but they do.
the issue is murky for certain use cases. take payments for example. fingerprinting is used at scale in that field, and for good measure. you want to be able to know the risk associated with a user (chargebacks, fraud, etc).
I'd love to see a successful prosecution as something like a US CFAA violation, setting a precedent that puts the fear of god into the widespread slimy side of our field.
But I suspect it will have to be a non-US country leading that, because a lot of the US economy and power is now tied up in widespread slimy behavior of our field.