Can You Create A Market For Privacy? Would Anyone Care If You Did?
from the artificial-scarcity-isn't-a-business-model dept
David writes in to point us to Jim Manzi's guest post at Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish suggesting that a way to deal with privacy issues is to create a market for private info. This is not a new idea, though it's not clear if Manzi knows about those who have tried it before. Root Markets has been trying to do this for years without getting that much traction. Manzi's idea is that right now people are lax with transaction data because they really have no choice: "When the choices are (1) opt out of modern life, or (2) implicitly surrender all of this info, pretty much everybody picks door #2." His description of the solution, however, should immediately ring some bells on an analogy that shows why his plan will almost certainly never work:"But what if I had the practical ability to charge commercial entities for access to or use of information of this sort? It would, first, go from a free good to a scarcer resource, and second, I could protect those parts of my transaction history that I feel to be most sensitive. In effect, we need a functioning market into which I can sell my transaction history."Yes, he's basically saying that we should take an infinite resource (data about our transactions) and forcibly create artificial scarcity, and then create a market around that artificial scarcity. It sounds nice in theory, but given how just about every market that's based on artificial scarcity is disintegrating as we speak, it seems unlikely to get very far. If there's one lesson that we've learned from watching the entertainment industry implode over the last decade, it should be that artificial scarcity doesn't last. Basing a business model on artificial scarcity is incredibly risky.
Given how little attention Root Markets has received from users, Manzi may not be correct in estimating where consumers' feelings lie on this matter. As they've shown time and time again, it's not that people want to keep their transaction data private and just don't have the means to do so -- it's that very few really seem to care at all.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It will all come around
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
I love this idea! I may never have to work again!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
DRM for personal information
[ link to this | view in thread ]
artificial scarcity disintegrating??
[ link to this | view in thread ]
And KaBoom diamonds aren't totally artificially scarce. Yes there hoarders that like to keep a tight grip on the diamond market but there is actually only a limited number of diamonds in the world.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The pricing problem
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: DRM for personal information
Temporary Inbox is great for this, if you use Firefox.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]