Team for Research in
Ubiquitous Secure Technology

Citation
Romanosky Sasha, Alessandro Acquisti. "Privacy Costs and Personal Data Protection: Economic and Legal Perspectives". Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 2010; http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1522605.

Abstract
We analyze personal data protection laws in the United States through the lenses of the economic theories of ex ante safety regulation, ex post liability and information disclosure. Specifically, we consider and contrast how legal and economic theories interpret privacy costs and the remedies to those costs. First, we introduce the general economic theories of ex ante regulation, ex post liability and information disclosure. Then, we present their causal relationships and show how they attempt to reduce possible privacy harms caused by a firm’s activity. We then scrutinize their impact by contrasting legal and economic doctrines. Finally, we provide deeper economic analysis of the three legal mechanisms and highlight conditions under which they may become socially inefficient.

Electronic downloads

• http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1522605

• HTML

  Romanosky Sasha, Alessandro Acquisti. <a
  href="http://www.truststc.org/pubs/670.html"
  >Privacy Costs and Personal Data Protection: Economic and
  Legal Perspectives</a>, <i>Berkeley Technology
  Law Journal</i>,  2010;
  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1522605.

• Plain text

  Romanosky Sasha, Alessandro Acquisti. "Privacy Costs
  and Personal Data Protection: Economic and Legal
  Perspectives". <i>Berkeley Technology Law
  Journal</i>,  2010;
  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1522605.

• BibTeX

  @article{SashaAcquisti10_PrivacyCostsPersonalDataProtectionEconomicLegalPerspectives,
      author = {Romanosky Sasha and Alessandro Acquisti},
      title = {Privacy Costs and Personal Data Protection:
                Economic and Legal Perspectives},
      journal = {Berkeley Technology Law Journal},
      year = {2010},
      note = {http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1522605},
      abstract = {We analyze personal data protection laws in the
                United States through the lenses of the economic
                theories of ex ante safety regulation, ex post
                liability and information disclosure.
                Specifically, we consider and contrast how legal
                and economic theories interpret privacy costs and
                the remedies to those costs. First, we introduce
                the general economic theories of ex ante
                regulation, ex post liability and information
                disclosure. Then, we present their causal
                relationships and show how they attempt to reduce
                possible privacy harms caused by a firm’s
                activity. We then scrutinize their impact by
                contrasting legal and economic doctrines. Finally,
                we provide deeper economic analysis of the three
                legal mechanisms and highlight conditions under
                which they may become socially inefficient. },
      URL = {http://www.truststc.org/pubs/670.html}
  }
  

Posted by Alessandro Acquisti on 29 Mar 2010.
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