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Where everybody knows your name: a pragmatic look at the costs of privacy 
and the benefits of information exchange
By Kent Walker
General Counsel, Liberate Technologies
Abstract:
"Contemporary privacy discussions too often assume that more privacy is 
necessarily better and limit the debate to a bipolar continuum pitting 
businesses against consumers. Kent Walker maintains that this view is too 
limited. In constructing new and better privacy protections, we risk 
neglecting the implicit costs of privacy. The contemporary concept of 
information privacy embodies an ethic of individualism that shortchanges 
more traditional notions of community and the public good.
The author examines the benefits which flow from the sharing of personal 
information, such as consumer benefits, certainty and security, and the 
fostering of community, and proposes a hierarchy of protection for various 
types of personal information. He then examines the difficulties involved 
in implementing a regulatory structure for the protection of privacy by 
considering the European Union's Privacy Directive."
To view the article, visit 
http://stlr.stanford.edu/STLR/Articles/00_STLR_2/index.htm