Privacy, property and permissions
Mailbag My tale about how digital privacy needs to be protected by strong property rights caused heated discussion here and over the web - I'll summarise the best points here. The idea that you ultimately own your data is pretty fundamental to creating effective privacy legislation. If you're the sovereign "owner" of your data, then everyone from the spooks to Facebook must come to you and seek your permission - and justify using it. But if you don't "own" anything, then you have nothing to assert. If you don't "own" your data, then you are the product.…