Privacy and Property in the Global Datasphere

Abstract:     
Adoption of information technologies is dependent upon the availability of information to be channeled via such technologies. Although many cultural approaches to information control have been identified, two increasingly ubiquitous regimes are battling for dominance in the international arena. These may be termed the utilitarian and the deontological approaches, and may be roughly identified with, respectively, the United States and the continental European tradition. Each approach has been aggressively promulgated by its respective proponent via international treaty regimes in the areas of privacy and intellectual property, to the virtual exclusion of other alternatives. Absent a drastic shift in international treaty dynamics, these dominant conceptions will likely curtail the development of alternate approaches that might otherwise emerge from local culture and tradition.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 11

Keywords: privacy, data protection, intellectual property, indigenous culture, information policy, TRIPs, international treaty

JEL Classification: O31, O32, O33, O34, O38, L86, K20, K33

working papers series