Privacy Is Up to You
Tourists at Facebook’s moncler coats sale headquarters on April 10, moncler outlet kids the day its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, testified at a Senate hearing. Researchers say his pledge to give users more say over the use of their data discount moncler outlet is undercut by a phenomenon known as the «control paradox.»As moncler coats for cheap Facebook’s co founder and chief executive parried moncler outlets usa questions from members of Congress about how the social network would protect its users’ privacy, he returned time and again to what probably sounded like an unimpeachable proposition.
By providing its moncler jackets on sale users with greater and more transparent controls over the personal data they share and how it is used for targeted advertising, he insisted, Facebook could empower them to make their own call and decide how much privacy they were willing to put on the block.
moncler sale outlet He must be kidding.
moncler outlet sale As Mr. Zuckerberg surely knows, providing a greater sense of control over their personal data won’t make Facebook users more cautious. It will instead encourage them to share more. This, of course, will produce more data for Facebook to mine to its own https://www.moncleroutletmall.com financial advantage.
moncler outlet store «Disingenuous is the adjective moncler outlet location I had in my mind,» said Alessandro Acquisti, a leading expert on privacy related behavior at Carnegie Mellon University, when I called to chat about how Mr. Zuckerberg’s testimony meshed with his research.
moncler outlet Professor Acquisti and two colleagues, Laura Brandimarte and the behavioral economist George Loewenstein, moncler coats cheap published research on this behavior nearly six years ago. «Providing users of modern information sharing technologies with more granular privacy controls may lead them to share more sensitive information cheap moncler jackets with larger, and possibly riskier, audiences,» they concluded.
The phenomenon even has a name: the «control paradox.»
«Privacy control settings give people more rope to hang themselves,» Professor Loewenstein told me. «Facebook has figured this out, so they give you incredibly granular controls.»
cheap moncler outlet This paradox is hardly the moncler outlet uk only psychological quirk for the social network to exploit. Consider default settings. Tons of research in behavioral economics has found that people tend to stick to the default setting of whatever is offered to them, even when they could change it easily. This applies to the share of their paycheck that will moncler outlet mall be deposited every month in a 401(k) retirement plan or to the amount of personal information they will moncler jackets kids share online.
moncler outlet online «Facebook is acutely aware of this,» Professor Loewenstein told me. In 2005, its default settings shared most profile fields with, at most, friends of friends. Nothing was shared by default with moncler coats for women the full internet. By 2010, however, likes, name, gender, picture and a lot of other things were shared with everybody online. «Facebook changed the defaults because it appreciated moncler jackets toronto their power,» Professor Loewenstein added.
cheap moncler jackets It is time that Congress appreciates it, too.
buy moncler jackets The question for members of Congress goes beyond how much Facebook and others may be exploiting our inability to rationally assess the pros and cons of sharing information profiting from the difficulty we have measuring the immediate reward moncler jackets canada of the cute puppy video against the more distant risk of having our data sloshing around the internet for Moncler Factory Outlet years.
As we devote more of our lives to online experiences, while offering data about ourselves in exchange for information, moncler outlets uk entertainment or whatever, the critical question is whether, given the tools, we can be trusted to manage the experience. The increasing body of research into how we behave online suggests not.
cheap moncler An experiment Discount Moncler Coats by Susan Athey of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, along with Christian Catalini and Catherine Tucker of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that people who profess concern about privacy will provide the emails of their friends in exchange for some pizza. They also found that providing consumers reassuring though irrelevant information about their ability to protect their privacy will make them less likely to avoid surveillance.
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monlcer down jackets Continue reading the main story
When people were exposed to one of three different websites that asked embarrassing questions like «Have you ever tried to peek at someone else’s email without them knowing?» the most dangerous looking website decorated discount moncler jackets with moncler coats a horned moncler jacket online devil and the moncler outlet usa words «How BAD Are U?» got, by far, the most positive responses.
moncler mens jackets Those in the industry often argue that people don’t really care about their privacy that they may seem concerned cheap moncler jackets outlet when they answer surveys, but still routinely accept cookies and consent moncler jackets men to have their data harvested moncler jackets mens in exchange moncleroutletmall for cool online experiences.
Professor Acquisti thinks this is a fallacy. The cognitive hurdles to manage our privacy online are simply too steep.
This moncler coats for men is all pretty novel. The idea of online privacy didn’t exist a generation ago. While we moncler outlet online store are good at handling our privacy in the offline world, lowering our voices or closing the curtains as the occasion may moncler outlet canada warrant, there are no cues online to alert us to a potential privacy invasion. It seems foolhardy moncler jackets to think we could determine the boundaries of data collection on our own.
Even if we were to know precisely what information companies like Facebook have about us and how it will be used, which we don’t, it would be hard for us to assess potential harms. Could we face higher prices online because Amazon has a precise grasp of our price sensitivities? Might our online identity discourage banks from giving us a loan? What else could happen? How does the risk stack up against the value of a targeted ad, or a friend’s birthday reminder?
cheap moncler sale Members of Congress have mostly let market forces prevail online, unfettered by government meddling. moncler chicago Privacy protection in the internet economy has relied on the belief that consumers will make rational choices. Give them a simple dial to manage their preferences and accurate information, in a timely fashion and a big font, about what they are sharing online and they will make the right calls to avoid discrimination, protect moncler jackets outlet online themselves from predatory behavior and thrive.
Europe’s stringent new moncler outlet online privacy protection law, which Facebook has promised moncler jackets outlet to apply in the United States, may do better than the American system of moncler jackets cheap disclosure and consent. Data collectors in Europe will have to get explicit consent from users before harvesting their data, rather than simply offering them a chance to opt out. moncler outlet ny Still, the European system also relies mostly on faith that consumers will make rational choices.
cheap moncler coats The more that psychologists and behavioral economists study psychological biases and quirks, the clearer it seems that rational choices alone won’t work. «I don’t think any kind moncler outlet store of disclosure or opt in or opt out is going to protect us from our worst instincts,» Professor Loewenstein argued.
moncler sale What to do? Professor Acquisti suggests flipping the burden of proof. The Official Moncler Outlet case for privacy regulation rests on consumers’ proving that data collection is harmful. Why not ask buy moncler jackets toronto the big online platforms cheap moncler jackets wholesale like Facebook to prove they can’t work without it? If reducing data collection imposes a cost, we could figure out who bears it whether consumers, advertisers or Facebook’s bottom line. That could help set societywide boundaries about what moncler coats outlet data to collect and what to leave alone.