By Anonymous
When we think of the problems we face with regard to our data being collected, almost all of the solutions which people put forward revolve around stopping the collection.
I want to take minute and highlight a few things which I think will point to a better solution:
First, it is easy for us to scream for our right to privacy, but what is over looked is the right to observe.
As individuals we have a right to do what we can in order to get the best outcomes we can, and that includes observing others. We have the right to do so up to point at which is explicitly breaks the law.
If you reflect, you will find you do the same and would do the same, and to the greatest extent you could, in any number of situations, e.g., when applying for a job, when hiring, when choosing a date, when choosing a meal off a menu, etc.
And few would fault you.
The issue is less if you would or that others would shame you for it, and more a matter of effectiveness. As an individual, it may be impossible for us to determine some of those things (i.e., 0 effectiveness) and for the cases where you can, your effectiveness may be questionable and the cost of increasing your effectiveness may be too high (time, effort, etc.).
Here is where the real problem emerges. And it is the kind of problem which law makers and advocates for legal solutions often overlook:
Remember, right up to breaking the law...
First, collecting data is incredibly lucrative. Second, lucrative opportunities bring about clever innovation. Third, the law, by its nature, i.e., that it relies or established language, is always susceptible to the discovery or manufacturing of loopholes (If you say that can't listen, they'll look. If you say they can't look, someone else will look on their behalf).
What is need is to turn those very same forces against the data collectors.
They have spent years on end improving, innovating, etc. and what is needed now it to unlock the same level of innovation on the other side.
At one point there were people looking at other people through their windows, then some created blinds.
We are at a state of reality where some people are looking at us through our window using the Hubbell telescope, and I think there is room for us to do a helluva a lot better than blinds.