> I should either have a right to do something, or not have that right. Should you have the right to watch which direction I'm going when I pass by at an inter

> I should either have a right to do something, or not have that right. Should you have the right to watch which direction I'm going when I pass by at an intersection? How about at the next intersection? And the one after that, and the one after that, and the one by my home, and all the ones that I happen to go by when I next leave and go somewhere? There's no single point at which passive observation turns into stalking but we still have laws against stalking and it's still perfectly ok and legal for you to watch where I'm going. If you understand why it's ok to look around you (and perhaps even take notes or draw what you see, snap a photo) but not OK to do that systematically around someone, you should also understand why we might want to restrict automated unwarranted and consentless data collection, even if taking some notes is OK. The other thing is scale. Laws against seemingly minor things are enacted when that thing becomes widespread enough to upset many people. You probably don't upset people too much by taking some notes in a shop. If every shop had a fleet of staff dedicated to the same thing, that probably would upset people and lead us to a similar discussion.