Jasmine McNealy writes:
Most Americans now have extensive digital footprints comprised of the Tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn profiles, Instagram photos, and other material they share online.(a) And this easily accessible public persona is just the tip of the iceberg. We may think our web searches, shopping habits, browsing history, and email archives are private, but this data is often one of the most valuable assets for companies like Google and Amazon.
The law, however, has yet to catch up. We still do not have clear answers to basic questions such as: Do people own personal information about themselves? How can they control or limit how companies (and governments) use it? To start, there are complexities around the fundamental issue of information “ownership,” particularly ownership of personally identifiable information (PII). One cannot be said to actually own information about one’s self. Information relates to you, is connected to you, or is of you.
Read more on Footnote1