Would You Pay 25 Cents to Protect Your Privacy?
Information has value, so it's not surprising that there’s a trade in personal information. Technology has made organizing personal information much easier and more thorough. But it also makes invasions into your privacy possible that we wouldn’t have even dreamed of just a few years ago.
If you live in the United States, just about every piece of information you might want to keep private is for sale. This includes your telephone records, your medical records, your financial records, your home’s location and worth, and, much, much more.
You might wring your hands and despair at this loss of privacy. But, most Americans won't spend even 25 cents to keep their data private. A recent study from researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of California found that most individuals aren't willing to spend anything – even 25 cents – to prevent companies from selling sensitive information about them.
There are a number of reasons Americans aren't willing to trade their depreciating greenbacks for greater privacy. I'm not a social scientist, but I believe most individuals have no idea how their personal information is sold, data mined and otherwise used for purposes ranging from deciding if they're good marketing prospects to purchase aluminum siding to identifying them as potential terrorists.
On the other hand, when privacy invasion is more visible – telemarketing calls come to mind –Americans will spend a little time (if not money) to avoid it. Perhaps that's why nearly 150 million Americans have put their names on the Federal Trade Commission's "'Do Not Call" list. There's no charge to have your name placed on this list.
In addition, younger Americans have a much higher tolerance for privacy invasion than older Americans. Recently, I warned the college-age daughter of a friend about how U.S. intelligence agencies were data-mining information on social networking websites such as MySpace to identify the next generation of terrorists or other malcontents. She was surprised, but when I saw her two weeks later, she told me she didn't plan to take down her MySpace page. "That's how I meet all my friends," she told me. I don't have anything to hide, so why should I worry?"
The truth is, though, that all of us have things to hide. The "nothing to hide" argument is specious on its face: Would you give a stranger the combination to your safety deposit box? Would you knowingly give your credit card number to a known identity thief?
Those who say they have "nothing to hide" also fail to appreciate the fact that data-mining may reveal – perhaps falsely – an association with a group labeled as threatening. Indeed, that's the precise reason why the Homeland Security Administration's terrorist watch list contains hundreds of thousands of names. In reality, only a tiny handful of these individuals have seriously considered, much less tried to carry out, a terrorist attack.
However, so long as data-mining occurs behind the scenes, and the "average American" doesn't seem affected by it, the “nothing to hide argument” will continue to have legs. And that's a shame, because all of us have something to hide, even if we don't know it.
What do YOU have to hide? Click here to learn specific strategies to shield your privacy and your assets from a slew of invasions.
Information has value, so it's not surprising that there’s a trade in personal information. Technology has made organizing personal information much easier and more thorough. But it also makes invasions into your privacy possible that we wouldn’t have even dreamed of just a few years ago.
If you live in the United States, just about every piece of information you might want to keep private is for sale. This includes your telephone records, your medical records, your financial records, your home’s location and worth, and, much, much more.
You might wring your hands and despair at this loss of privacy. But, most Americans won't spend even 25 cents to keep their data private. A recent study from researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of California found that most individuals aren't willing to spend anything – even 25 cents – to prevent companies from selling sensitive information about them.
There are a number of reasons Americans aren't willing to trade their depreciating greenbacks for greater privacy. I'm not a social scientist, but I believe most individuals have no idea how their personal information is sold, data mined and otherwise used for purposes ranging from deciding if they're good marketing prospects to purchase aluminum siding to identifying them as potential terrorists.
On the other hand, when privacy invasion is more visible – telemarketing calls come to mind –Americans will spend a little time (if not money) to avoid it. Perhaps that's why nearly 150 million Americans have put their names on the Federal Trade Commission's "'Do Not Call" list. There's no charge to have your name placed on this list.
In addition, younger Americans have a much higher tolerance for privacy invasion than older Americans. Recently, I warned the college-age daughter of a friend about how U.S. intelligence agencies were data-mining information on social networking websites such as MySpace to identify the next generation of terrorists or other malcontents. She was surprised, but when I saw her two weeks later, she told me she didn't plan to take down her MySpace page. "That's how I meet all my friends," she told me. I don't have anything to hide, so why should I worry?"
The truth is, though, that all of us have things to hide. The "nothing to hide" argument is specious on its face: Would you give a stranger the combination to your safety deposit box? Would you knowingly give your credit card number to a known identity thief?
Those who say they have "nothing to hide" also fail to appreciate the fact that data-mining may reveal – perhaps falsely – an association with a group labeled as threatening. Indeed, that's the precise reason why the Homeland Security Administration's terrorist watch list contains hundreds of thousands of names. In reality, only a tiny handful of these individuals have seriously considered, much less tried to carry out, a terrorist attack.
However, so long as data-mining occurs behind the scenes, and the "average American" doesn't seem affected by it, the “nothing to hide argument” will continue to have legs. And that's a shame, because all of us have something to hide, even if we don't know it.
What do YOU have to hide? Click here to learn specific strategies to shield your privacy and your assets from a slew of invasions.
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