[MyData & Open Data] Economic signalling, open data, my data, and privacy unraveling

Fri Apr 11 15:33:39 UTC 2014

He makes strong arguments and as I struggle to see what sort of case any
regulatory framework could possible make to counter individual signalling,
I would imagine that what he proposes as a solution to 'unchecked
signalling' is beyond the realm of informational privacy advocates? In
practice, individuals tend to weigh personal considerations against what is
the acceptable norm when choosing to fully disclose depending on if they
hope to economically or not.

On 11 April 2014 14:44, Song, Stephen <stephen.song at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'd like to raise another issue here related to the role of individual
> choice in making data public.  In this paper by Scott Peppet
>
> Unraveling Privacy: The Personal Prospectus & the Threat of a Full
> Disclosure Future
> http://www.scottpeppet.com/2012/04/unraveling-privacy/
>
> Peppet argues that by choosing to make our data public, we are forcing an
> implied choice on others who don't, about which people will make
> assumptions.  He gives the example of an orange seller.
>
> "The classic example of unraveling imagines a buyer inspecting a  crate of
> oranges.  The quantity of oranges in the crate is unknown and opening the
> crate before purchase is unwise because the oranges will rot before
> transport. There are stiff penalties for lying, but no duty on the part of
> the seller to disclose the number of oranges in the crate. The number of
> oranges will be easy to verify once the crate is delivered and opened. The
> buyer believes that there can't be more than one hundred oranges.
>
> The unraveling effect posits that all sellers will fully disclose the
> number of oranges in the crate, regardless of how many their crate
> contains. Begin with the choice faced by a seller with one hundred oranges
> in his crate. If the seller stays silent, the buyer will assume there are
> fewer than one hundred oranges and will be unwilling to pay for the full
> amount. The seller with one hundred oranges will therefore disclose and
> charge full price. Now consider the choice of a seller with ninety nine
> oranges. If this seller stays quiet, the buyer will assume that there are
> fewer than ninety nine oranges and will discount accordingly. The silent
> seller gets pooled with all the lower-value sellers, to his disadvantage.
> He will therefore disclose.  And so it goes, until one reaches the seller
> with only one orange and the unraveling is complete."
>
> You can imagine this applied to health data, fitness data, driving data,
> etc.  He sums it up by saying:
>
> "In a signaling economy, even if individuals have control over their
> personal information, that control is itself the undoing of their privacy"
>
> The paper left more questions for me than it answered.  How significant a
> factor is signalling?  How can it be weighed against individual freedom of
> choice?  This sort of thing already happens with insurance companies.  Is
> the risk the same in other realms of open data?  His argument strikes me as
> convincing but theoretical, a possible extrapolation of things as they are.
>  I'd love to hear other opinions on this paper.
>
> Regards... Steve
>
>
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>

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