New York City is about to introduce municipal rental scooters that will track whoever uses them.

Don't be distracted by the side issue of rules for access to this tracking data. Whatever rules New York City adopts, the FBI won't be required to heed them. It will be empowered to collect the whole data base at will — once a month, or once a minute.

Making systems respect privacy means designing them not to collect sensitive data (such as locations) about people without a specific justification validated by a court.

I would not use these scooters unless I could use them anonymously. Likewise, I would not use Uber unless I could use them anonymously.