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How would this work? E.g. how do you audit whether such a tax is properly paid? What precisely would be taxed?

draugadrotten 7y ago
Constructive question and answering this properly might take a few years and a couple of thousand pages. Tax legislation isn't done by forum posts. However, in generic terms. Financial transactions are audited by enforcing the use of a ledger, with rules for how all transactions must be entered into the ledger. Auditing data transactions could be implemented in a similar fashion, by demanding that all data usage is entered into a ledger, and that evidence is produced that the rules are followed. It could be similar to what EU is doing this with GDPR. GDPR can be audited and it is purely related to what is being done with data. Modelling a "data usage" legislation on this type of existing data legislation could be possible. Precisely what would be taxed is perhaps not the core of my message. However, taxes have side effects: companies wants to minimize taxes. If society would like to minimize the use of personal data, a tax on personal data use would have such an effect. Unprofitable use of personal data would decrease.
goatinaboat 7y ago
The key is to make data a liability not an asset. So it is too expensive to store any data that is not directly essential. Maybe a ratio of number of users in your database to the turnover of the company? A flat fee of $100/year perhaps for every permanent record you keep, a company could still sell products perfectly well without requiring users to actually register.
harimau777 7y ago
The current discourse in America seems to be that corporations are justified in anything they do as long as it stays within the letter, if not the spirit, of the law. Therefore, even if they are not possible to audit, I can see value in laws that establish how the system is intended to work.

Constructive question and answering this properly might take a few years and a couple of thousand pages. Tax legislation isn't done by forum posts. However, in generic terms. Financial transactions are audited by enforcing the use of a ledger, with rules for how all transactions must be entered into the ledger. Auditing data transactions could be implemented in a similar fashion, by demanding that all data usage is entered into a ledger, and that evidence is produced that the rules are followed. It could be similar to what EU is doing this with GDPR. GDPR can be audited and it is purely related to what is being done with data. Modelling a "data usage" legislation on this type of existing data legislation could be possible. Precisely what would be taxed is perhaps not the core of my message. However, taxes have side effects: companies wants to minimize taxes. If society would like to minimize the use of personal data, a tax on personal data use would have such an effect. Unprofitable use of personal data would decrease.

goatinaboat 7y ago

The key is to make data a liability not an asset. So it is too expensive to store any data that is not directly essential. Maybe a ratio of number of users in your database to the turnover of the company? A flat fee of $100/year perhaps for every permanent record you keep, a company could still sell products perfectly well without requiring users to actually register.

harimau777 7y ago

The current discourse in America seems to be that corporations are justified in anything they do as long as it stays within the letter, if not the spirit, of the law. Therefore, even if they are not possible to audit, I can see value in laws that establish how the system is intended to work.