Grappling with the Privacy Paradox

[Commentary] A popular water cooler topic in the policy and technology communities is something called the Privacy Paradox. Recently, EMC Corporation, a leading enterprise cloud-based services company, released its inaugural EMC Privacy Index.

This study was commissioned by the company to better understand consumer perceptions about the need to protect personal privacy online and how that ranks as a consumer priority against the benefits of convenient online commerce and social media sharing, alongside other priorities such as the use of data analytics to prevent terrorist attacks and protect national security. Its data reflects survey responses from 15,000 consumers in 15 countries, including the United States.

The vast majority of respondents in all surveyed countries (91 percent) indicated they value the benefit of “easier access to information and knowledge” that digital technology affords. Yet 81 percent also expected privacy to erode over the next five years, and 59 percent said they have less privacy than a year ago. Less than half of all respondents (45 percent) also indicated they were willing to trade some of their privacy for easier access.