The Privacy Paradox
Minas Samatas
University of Crete
"Samatas Minas" <samatas@social.soc.uoc.gr>

This position paper is based on the following premises: -

Focusing on ‘’ for web users, we observe, as it is documented by
several internet surveys, that they place it high on their list of
concerns, yet they take few voluntary steps to ensure it. Users
who attempt to protect their privacy proactively are often
thwarted by a "web" of obstacles: governmental security
requirements favoring states' ease of access versus individual
privacy rights; widespread use of customer information profiles
for marketing via conventional and Internet channels; and the
prevalence of profitable "dataveillance," "spyware," as well as
other illicit web surveillance enterprises.

- European Privacy protection legislation is insufficient, and
American-style self-regulation and optional privacy seals are
widely considered ineffective. Furthermore, individualistic
"informational self-determination," which leaves web users to make
decisions on which data they consent to make available, and in
which instances they refuse its availability, is impractical.

- In information capitalism, high-tech surveillance is already a
structural feature of political and corporate power; information
privacy protection produces a market where privacy is no longer a
right but a commodity, available only to those who can afford it.

- Trust facilitates web users to risk their privacy, but they are
still vulnerable. Trust in the adequacy of privacy-protection
legislation and privacy "hard" systems is a significant "soft"
factor for information quality and ICT-based information systems.

- Privacy should neither be treated as a commodity nor as a
completely personal issue dependent upon privacy-protection
legislation and data security hardware and software.

- In information-capitalist democracies there must be
institutional mechanisms to enforce institutional accountability,
and "top-down" punishment for all violators of personal
information privacy, including government agencies, corporations,
and other speculators. Furthermore, consumer unions, privacy
rights and other interest groups should be vigilant in identifying
and exposing privacy violators, boycotting and taking effective
action from below.