You rightly point out that the idea advocated by ballard, as stated, doesn't distinguish the probably narrower category that he's concerned about. But I think

You rightly point out that the idea advocated by ballard, as stated, doesn't distinguish the probably narrower category that he's concerned about. But I think what he meant was probably business data - which is distinguishable from newsworthy information. Yes, there are problems associated with this distinction, but I think it could be formulated well enough to protect both press freedom and privacy in commercial transactions. That said, I think ballard misidentified the problem in another way. The problem is not that "individuals have no rights to most of their own data" in US law - instead the problem is that individuals can be forced to bargain away all their rights to the info in question as a condition of engaging in any ordinary transaction of everyday life.