Sample menu:

Frequently asked questions about locational privacy

"I don't break the law. Why should I care about being tracked?"

When you say this, you're tacitly also saying "I'm not having an affair", and "I'm not in the closet", and "I don't belong to any minority political or religious groups". And maybe also, "it's cool if my employer knows when I go to church", and "I'm happy to have my corporate competitors be able to buy the locations of my salespeople".

Preservation of locational privacy is also key to exercising rights of free assembly and political association. It's a matter of dignity, not just raw criminality issues.

"I don't trust these 'cryptographic technological solutions'. Why shouldn't I assume it's all just a ploy to make me feel comfortable with having tracking devices around?"

If the options were no devices or purportedly secure cryptographic devices, this might be a compelling retort. However, those aren't the choices at hand: it's either devices we know aren't privacy-preserving, or devices built with these needs in mind. Also, it's important to remember that the point of building in these protections isn't to make it impossible to track you, just more expensive. We want to make casual data-mining to trawl for specific behaviors difficult. But if the FBI wants to pay Jimmy Bond to follow you around, they will.

"If people choose to use services that surrender their locational privacy, so be it."

For one thing, the notion of choice here can be troublesome; many services are either going to be mandated (automated tolling/ pay-as-you-drive insurance) or are coercive due to convenience and ubiquity (don't want to be tracked? Don't have a cell phone).

Being told that I can have my rights if I agree not to use the public sewer system isn't much of a choice.