Privacy as a right or as a commodity in the online world: the limits of regulatory reform and self-regulation

Diana Walsh (), James M. Parisi () and Katia Passerini ()
Additional contact information
Diana Walsh: New Jersey Institute of Technology
James M. Parisi: Law Offices of Murphy McKeon, P.C.
Katia Passerini: New Jersey Institute of Technology

Electronic Commerce Research, 2017, vol. 17, issue 2, No 1, 185-203

Abstract: Abstract The increased use of the internet and information technology to enable online transactions, distribute information and customer reviews through ecommerce and social networking sites, online advertising, and data mining is both creating efficiencies and challenging our privacy. This paper highlights the growing fear that current federal and state laws in the United States are not adequate to protect the privacy of the data collected while we process electronic transactions or browse the internet for information. The notion of efficiency and cost-benefit are used to justify a certain level of privacy loss, thus treating privacy as a commodity to be transacted rather than a right to be defended. To address developing concerns about personal privacy invasions, we discuss the role and limits that both government regulation and self-regulation play in protecting our privacy.

Keywords: Privacy; Efficiency; Regulations; Federal statutes; Case laws; Freedom of Information Act (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10660-015-9187-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:elcore:v:17:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10660-015-9187-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/10660

DOI: 10.1007/s10660-015-9187-2

Access Statistics for this article

Electronic Commerce Research is currently edited by James Westland

More articles in Electronic Commerce Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().