France Proposes Personal Information Tax

Slashdot reports that the New York Times reports that France is considering a tax on companies that collect personal information.

France Proposes a Tax On Personal Information Collection
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/01/21/1253219/france-proposes-a-tax-on-personal-information-collection

France Proposes an Internet Tax
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/business/global/21iht-datatax21.html

The rationale in part is that "...users of services like Google and Facebook are, in effect, working for these companies without pay by providing the personal information that lets them sell advertising." Touché! 

The tax would be based on the number of users tracked, not by the quantity of information. Unfortunately, this would give internet companies further incentive to thwart anonymous and pseudonymous accounts. Fortunately, this would give the French government an incentive to allow anonymous and pseudonymous accounts, as the extra accounts would drive up tax collections.