22 points
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Ok, bit of an outlandish idea, but how about something like:
- Decree that information about a person is the property of that person, and therefore cannot be possessed without compensation. Think of it like intellectual property, but for your personal information
- Set a standard royalty - say $0.05/year - that must be paid to the owner of that information for as long as that information is held. This forms an incentive to not hold information you don’t need, and gives visibility to all the places that are now forced to contact you every year to pay you the royalty
- Places where you have an explicit contractual relationship with (utilities, banks, …) could have a clause to set the royalty at $0.00, but this can’t be extended to third parties - strong incentive not to transfer information to third parties
- Unauthorised transfer or loss of information could be considered IP theft, and result in significant civil penalties
5 points
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