The Economics of Privacy-Privacy: People, Policy and Technology

Privacy of personal information is an area of growing concern and importance in the digital age. Privacy as an issue rises when there is a conflict of interest between its commercial value and respect for an individual´s right to privacy. This lends itself to the fact this trade off is of economic value and the issue of privacy is an economic problem and hence justifies the emergence of the economics of privacy as an important discipline which is a complex interplay of regulation, technology and people dynamics and the efficiency of doing business. In this survey paper we look into the work done by eminent people on the issue of privacy and its relationship with people, technology and regulation from an economic perspective and its increasing relevance today. Privacy affects each one of us in some way that we cannot afford to ignore it and it helps to be in cognizance of what is going on around us.