I’ve said again and again that we undervalue how much we are unmoored from traditional and historic notions of privacy.
The undervaluing is clear when one looks at some data that the FT has collected on how much it costs to buy info about you and me.
Cost of buying a list per thousand people:
$260 – people with cancer
$85 – identifying new parents
$85 – new house owners
$3 – movie choices
$2.11 – people looking to buy a car
$1.85 – TV viewing data
$1.35 – past purchases
$.50 – age or location
Over a decade of collecting this info by hundreds of players has driven down prices so much, and yet governments around the world have barely started thinking about the question.
In other words, there is now very little cost to buy information that violate your privacy. Where market prices don’t reflect social costs, the government often steps in to correct the externality.
Basic economics; basic policy.
takingpitches 