"Data privacy is not highly legislated or regulated in the U.S.. Although partial regulations exist, there is no all-encompassing law regulating the acquisition, storage, or use of personal data in the U.S. In general terms, in the U.S., whoever can be troubled to key in the data, is deemed to own the right to store and use it, even if the data were collected without permission."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_privacy_law#United_...