A consortium or whatnot of startup(or existing) companies might be an interesting way to both announce/broadcast their services/products and also create a standard privacy/user-data policy. Any ideas? Work towards common goals:
-Privacy by default, sharing only by opt-in.
-Advertising (if necessary)is done in a manner that demographics are shared with advertisers in some standard structure/tiering of individual data that is entirely up to the user to decide comfort level(e.g. complete privacy - higher SAAS prices or give up a high amount of privacy - lower priced or almost free SAAS).
-No externally hosted services(js-based offerings such as analytics, customer support, surveys, etc.) or if using a third party offering disclose who it is and only work those who also are members of the consortium.
-Disclose infrastructure and back-end(non-visible)/external processing companies that are used to operate the service.
-Agree that you won't pull a "Spotify" where user's data might be handed over to another company "after the fact." Announce changes like acquisitions or partnerships such that a change in access to user-data requires 30/60 days notice.
-Allow permanent deletion of accounts and information, not toggling columns in a database to hide visibility.
-Announce what details are captured regarding the user and make the entirety of that available for download in a common format.
Re-reading this I must sound paranoid but I've always considered myself moderate compared to Stallman. Am I the only one concerned with "acceptable" privacy these days?