People won’t pay for privacy
4 September 2007
Interesting Wired News article on why people won’t pay for protection from privacy intrusions.
Privacy is fast becoming the trendy concept in online marketing. An increasing number of companies are flaunting the steps they’ve taken to protect the privacy of their customers. But studies suggest consumers won’t pay even 25 cents to protect their data.
Later, one of the people interviewed explains why he thinks this is the case:
The thing about consumer privacy is it’s really a death from a thousand cuts. With any given click or any given web page the loss of information is usually very subtle. The fact that you may get more spam or pay more for flowers because you live in a wealthy ZIP code are just single drops in a tsunami of privacy violations.
Too bad. I certainly sympathize sometimes with the sense of hopelessness about keeping my privacy that many people experience. And, for some, perhaps the costs of combating privacy concerns are higher than the costs from losing one’s privacy.
Read more about privacy
