Buying and Selling Privacy: Big Data's Different Burdens and Benefits

Abstract

While we grasp at what privacy means in today's data economy, we should realize that Big Data will not invade the privacy of all people in the same way. Instead, the collection and analysis of our personal information will present different challenges to individual privacy depending upon whether one is rich or poor, or somewhere in between. This paper discusses how privacy decisions are made by different socioeconomic classes, and encourages policy makers to consider the different burdens individuals will face protecting their personal information.

Keywords: privacy, Big Data, law, technology, equality