Privacy, Economics And Immediate Gratification: Why Protecting Privacy Is Easy But Selling It Is Not

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Presented at Blackhat USA 2004 by

Alessandro Acquisti

Surveys have repeatedly identified privacy as one of the most pressing concerns of those using new information technology. Only in terms of Internet sales, billions of dollars are said to be lost every year because of privacy fears. At the same time, academic research and security industry efforts have developed protocols and technologies to protect individuals' privacy in almost any conceivable scenario— from browsing the Internet to purchasing on- and off-line. There is a demand, and there is an offer. So, why is there no market clearing?