Why Privacy Is Overrated European-style regulations of information collection would have a tremendous negative economic impact. It is no accident that the Internet has flourished the most in the U.S., a country with limited regulation compared to European states, and certainly nothing as invasive as the European Data Directive. In many cases, they are essential to providing the zero-cost content Internet users have come to expect. Compiling personal information lets businesses become more efficient and produce only products that people want. Don Boudreaux, president of the Foundation for Economic Education, likens customization to a good tailor.
Wealthy people get custom shirts, custom made shoes, and a lot of custom-made items.
What this new technology is doing is making it easier for merchants to give the same benefits of customization that were only available to the wealthy before. It makes sense, of course, to be suspicious of government collection of information. Government plans like the creation of an air traveller profiling system announced last week, and the recent trend toward larger and larger government databases, should give any thoughtful person cause for concern. But far too often, government databases you're unwillingly entered into are equated with private-sector companies to which you give information voluntarily. Not helping matters is the fact that the privacy debate has been dominated by an alphabet soup of liberal groups like the ACLU, EPIC, CDT, CPSR, PI, and EFF, all of which have busied themselves for the last decade demanding increased government regulation of businesses.