Privacy – Big Brother is a Corporation

Privacy Big Brother is a Corporation

So you’re online looking at reviews for camping tents, and the next thing you know, ads for camping tents start showing up on your browser! Ever get the feeling somebody’s watching? I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Belinger: So when you browse online for various products or you look around, there’s a history of your browsing. So depending on which browser you use, it keeps track of what you search over time, and then eventually creates some sort profile of you.

France Belinger is a professor in accounting and information systems in the Pamplin College of Business at VA Tech. She says that our habits, our interests, our information have become a valuable commodity.

Belinger: There are settings where you can go and erase you’re history of what you search for.
Now that being said, there’s also benefits to having some of this history there, because it eventually knows you enough that it gives you better results.
So and then we get to really what the biggest challenge is in privacy today, and that’s the balance between the benefits you get out of it, and the cost -which is the cost of the loss of privacy. But the benefit is all the convenience that you get.
Now, economist have referred to information privacy as a commodity. We are willing to give up our information privacy for the convenience that we get out of it. So it’s actually – we’re almost selling our information privacy.
My prediction is the Facebook-like company is going to say, “you want privacy? I’m going to give it to you. Here’s the cost.” And they’re going to say, “we’ll give you the kind of real private environment you want, if you’re willing to pay for it.” I think that’s going to happen.

Perhaps one day, consumers will withhold their personal information until companies pay for it. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. You can hear this and previous programs on our podcast.

Privacy - Big Brother is a Corporation

It's convenience versus the loss of privacy, while someone - or something, is watching.
Air Date:03/30/2016
Scientist:
Transcript:

Privacy Big Brother is a Corporation

So you're online looking at reviews for camping tents, and the next thing you know, ads for camping tents start showing up on your browser! Ever get the feeling somebody's watching? I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Belinger: So when you browse online for various products or you look around, there's a history of your browsing. So depending on which browser you use, it keeps track of what you search over time, and then eventually creates some sort profile of you.

France Belinger is a professor in accounting and information systems in the Pamplin College of Business at VA Tech. She says that our habits, our interests, our information have become a valuable commodity.

Belinger: There are settings where you can go and erase you're history of what you search for.
Now that being said, there's also benefits to having some of this history there, because it eventually knows you enough that it gives you better results.
So and then we get to really what the biggest challenge is in privacy today, and that's the balance between the benefits you get out of it, and the cost -which is the cost of the loss of privacy. But the benefit is all the convenience that you get.
Now, economist have referred to information privacy as a commodity. We are willing to give up our information privacy for the convenience that we get out of it. So it's actually - we're almost selling our information privacy.
My prediction is the Facebook-like company is going to say, "you want privacy? I'm going to give it to you. Here's the cost." And they're going to say, "we'll give you the kind of real private environment you want, if you're willing to pay for it." I think that's going to happen.

Perhaps one day, consumers will withhold their personal information until companies pay for it. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. You can hear this and previous programs on our podcast.