Maybe we should think about location data in a similar way to photographs. Both are generated by smartphone hardware and software, but the person who presses the shutter button legally owns the copyright to the photo, not the device manufacturer or carrier.
Why don't I own the copyrights to my location data, and why doesn't the carrier need to license it from me in order to sell on to these bounty hunters?
The creative act here is my movement. If I go to an open space and walked the outline of an airplane I have created something, even if it can only be viewed in the data that the phone has collected, the creative act was mine.
One cannot copyright facts else the first one to blurt out a truth would be the only one allowed to speak it. The fact that the truth contains facts about an artistic endeavor doesn't make the actual data about reality an artistic endeavor as the recording of those facts is in no way creative.
If you filmed yourself walking around like an airplane you would own the clip. Blog about it and you own the article. But the space you occupied at 10:35AM last Thursday is a singular indisputable fact with not an ounce of creativity. In fact more to the point even what they have is actually facts about their own equipment like which tower you were close to at that time which its hard to imagine you owning.
There are laws designed keep people from collecting and misusing your data in countries not run by morons. There is no reasonable way you are going to acquire this same privacy and protection by trying to misuse copyright creatively. I'm sure actual lawyers are likely to regard interesting legal theories the same way engineers regard interesting theories on how to make engines run forever for free via magnets.
Exactly. There are a lot of people out there doing Strava art, which to me is undoubtedly a creative work, and more creative than a typical selfie or vacation shot. I believe copyright covers all photographs, regardless of their artistic merit. Why not also location data?
Why don't I own the copyrights to my location data, and why doesn't the carrier need to license it from me in order to sell on to these bounty hunters?