The privacy wars are about to get a whole lot worse
I used to feel strongly about not trading my privacy away for some convenience.  For a long time I took a luddite pride in not being on various services, having a dumb phone, keeping it turned off, etc.  Over time, though, I&#x27;ve found myself having a change of heart.  What started as little inconveniences have turned into big ones, as I&#x27;m more and more out of touch with my peers, contemporaries, and family.  I don&#x27;t like that.  And for what?  Companies can still track me, my data&#x27;s still out there.<p>But I still care about privacy.  It&#x27;s a basic human right.  What I&#x27;ve realized is that our laws are lousy at enshrining that right--companies can largely do what they want, etc.,--and we&#x27;re lousy as a society at recognizing the value of that right.<p>So I&#x27;m curious, are there any cities, counties, states with any sort of legislative efforts going on to strengthen the citizens&#x27; rights to privacy and ownership of data?  Is there anyone we can look to as a model for &quot;privacy and data ownership done right,&quot; something to work toward implementing at a national level?<p>Is there any awareness group working to raise these issues in a way that&#x27;s actually accessible to the general public?  (Are they doing a good job at it?)<p>I don&#x27;t want to give up, and I don&#x27;t want to check out.  I like my shiny devices and assistants now, they make my life easier in little ways all the time.  How can we balance that with the basic human right to own our data and retain our privacy?