Simply banning certain uses of personal information does not accommodate individual needs … Proponents of the market approach say that fear of regulation may do more than anything else to push corporations who traffic in our personal lives to come up with ways to maintain privacy. On the other hand, privacy advocates argue that trusting corporations to sit on mounds of valuable personal information is naive. Furthermore, even if leaving privacy protection to market forces makes sense in certain areas, it makes no sense where consumers have no choice, as in dealing with their state Motor Vehicle Bureau or the IRS. Then, privacy advocates say, we need tough new laws to secure personal information.
Predictor: Experts
Prediction, in context:In their 1995 book “The Right to Privacy,” Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy write: ”Those who favor letting market forces do the job [of protecting individual’s privacy online] say that regulation by statute is too costly and inflexible an approach. First, privacy is such a personal issue that people will naturally differ on how much they are willing to give up for certain services. Some customers like it when they order by phone and the retailer has their previous purchasing history on file. Others want to receive all sorts of catalogues which they did not think to ask for. Simply banning certain uses of personal information does not accommodate individual needs. Second, ever more state and federal regulations will only drive up the cost of services as companies are forced to comply with the multitude of rules and the bureaucracy that goes with them. Indeed, proponents of the market approach say that fear of regulation may do more than anything else to push corporations who traffic in our personal lives to come up with ways to maintain privacy. On the other hand, privacy advocates argue that trusting corporations to sit on mounds of valuable personal information is naive. Furthermore, even if leaving privacy protection to market forces makes sense in certain areas, it makes no sense where consumers have no choice, as in dealing with their state Motor Vehicle Bureau or the IRS. Then, privacy advocates say, we need tough new laws to secure personal information.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance
Name of publication: The Right to Privacy
Title, headline, chapter name: Privacy and Information
Quote Type: Paraphrase
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Pages 329-330
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney