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AOL Data Valdez and the Privacy Ceiling
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:07:36 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Janice Tsai <harraton () cmu edu> Date: August 15, 2006 3:29:03 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: AOL Data Valdez and the Privacy Ceiling My collaborator Scott Craver posted a blog entry examining the AOL "Data Valdez" incident in light of the "privacy ceiling." It follows up on another thread on Freedom to Tinker (http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1029) about what kind of incident would become the next "Exxon Valdez of Privacy." http://blog.xcott.com/?p=16 <snip> In an upcoming paper for the ACM 2006 DRM workshop, Lorrie Cranor, Janice Tsai and I propose an interesting concept called a "privacy ceiling." This is an economic limit on privacy violation by companies, owing to the liability of having too much information about (or control over) users. If companies had the foresight, they would recognize this limit and stay beneath it; but then, if companies behaved as described in economics textbooks we wouldn't have Enron or WorldCom either. <snip> Here are some other observations on this privacy leak: <snip> * This privacy leak passes at least the gut test for a "Valdez" event. There are numerous factors which determine how much public outrage a disaster will generate. For privacy disasters, I feel a big factor is the personal nature of the personal information. First consider a company leaking your social security number. Now consider a peeping tom concealing a camera in your bedroom. Both are privacy violations, but in the latter case the violation is felt at a more visceral level. Likewise consider someone reading your personnel records, versus someone reading your medical records, versus someone reading your diary. <snip> Janice Tsai ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- AOL Data Valdez and the Privacy Ceiling David Farber (Aug 15)