Privacy - or, Why we need a property right to our data

Looks like police are tracking people on almost no probable cause, and the rest of us are losing our privacy and our 4th Amendment protections in the process.

The fastest and easiest way to fix this -- I believe -- would be to establish that you have a property right in data about your location in time and space, with an exception for direct observations. In other words, if I happen to see you in a store or on a sidewalk, that's normal; if I use a GPS bug to track you without authorization, then I'm stealing data about you.

That property right also means you are free to sell your data -- such as to a traffic monitoring system that would rebate part of your subscription in exchange for you feeding the system with info about your driving experience. And the monitoring firm could be barred from reselling that data without your consent, unless it was rendered anonymous. If your stalker ex-boyfriend hacks their system and uses it to track you, he's stealing from both you and them, in addition to being a stalker -- making it much easier to prosecute him.

Police can still track people provided they get a warrant. Warrantless tracking, however, would be forbidden. (Parolees could be tracked at any time without a warrant, just as today the police can search a parolee's home at any time without a warrant -- that's part of the deal when one is released on parole.)