Colin, a tax inspector for the Ministry of the Economy and Finance in France, believes that corporations have turned the Digital Age into a massive tax haven which dwarfs anything high-priced accountants have ever pulled off in places like the Cayman Islands. His beef: Corporations don’t pay a penny in taxes on all that free labor.  In other words, not only are you are the product, but you’re also paying for all the roads, fiber-optic lines and airports that digitally dependent corporations need to get rich.

Colin caused a stir last month when he co-authored a report for the French government recommending what some have called a “privacy tax” – essentially a mechanism to punish companies that profit from misuse of consumer data. The idea of a new tax based on something seemingly so vague went over like a lead balloon in many quarters.

But Colin’s idea is far broader, and has wide multinational implications. He wants to change the fundamentals of how taxes are levied, a step every bit as radical as the invention of income or sales taxes. 

He wants to tax data.

Colin’s proposal begins with the notion that, like it or not, we are all part of the supply chain now.