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Originally Posted by fjtorres
That is *one* of the positions in the debate.
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Of course. That's why I wrote "I think" ;-)
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
Another position is that data collection itself cannot be (realistically) regulated in any meaningful fashion (because of technological issues) and the only sensible regulation can be on its uses and abuses.
I would point out that a lot of what raises people's hackles falls within the province of "accounting data" which companies are *required* to retain by the same governments grappling with the complexities of privacy protection.
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Well, browsing history or your Google searches can hardly be described as "accounting data". And I don't see any technical issue in outlawing software that collects such kind of data except when the user has signed a (physical) document stating that it's OK for her/him. Or something like that.
By the way: how can you regulate the "use" of data that are exploited for means that are only indirectly related to the data itself? For instance: data about your habits can be used to guess where you live, where you work, and (therefore) what your social status is. Based on such guess, someone can target specific ads at you. How, exactly, could you even know that such data exist, who has them, and what they are being used for? And if even you don't know, how can anyone detect an abusive use of data about you, and who did it?