Team for Research in
Ubiquitous Secure Technology

Privacy Costs and Personal Data Protection: Economic and Legal Perspectives
Romanosky Sasha, Alessandro Acquisti

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

Citation formats  
  • 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.
For additional information, see the Publications FAQ or contact webmaster at www truststc org.

Notice: This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright.