Page 94 - Privacy in a Cyber Age Policy and Practice

THE PRIVACY MERCHANTS 81

some evidence or reason to suspect that they are violating the law. However,
one must still note that from here on, whether such data banks are in the
FBI headquarters or in some corporate office matters little. At most, they
are just a click—and a payment—away.
The next segment of this chapter outlines differing approaches to the
protection of privacy in the new world in which the traditional distinction
between public and private realms, on which many normative and legal con-
ceptions build, in particular those that concern privacy, are much less important
and are becoming still less significant. The new amalgamated social world
calls for cross-realm or holistic modes of deliberations and policy making.

C. The Main Alternatives

The following deliberations draw on my sociological training and on
normative considerations rather than on any legal preparation. I merely
chart the “big picture” because, as will become clear, most if not all the
alternatives face major hurdles. It therefore seems premature to spell out
any of the alternative approaches before strategies and political forces
develop that will make it possible to overcome these hurdles. The alterna-
tives are evaluated not on the basis of what would best protect privacy from
privacy merchants, but instead on which measures might be taken given
the prevailing context in the United States.

1. Change the Norm: A World without Privacy?

One major response to privacy merchants’ expanding reach has been well
encapsulated by the Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, who stated,
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“Privacy is dead, get over it.” Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg,
argues that the social norms that undergird privacy law are obsolete. That
is, instead of finding new ways to protect individuals from corporations,
individuals should learn to accept changed—in effect, much lower—levels
of privacy. He elaborated, “People have really gotten comfortable not only
sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with
more people [. . .] That social norm is just something that has evolved over
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time.” Zuckerberg continued, “We view it as our role in the system to con-
stantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what
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the current social norms are.” He thus implies that the privacy merchants
are not undermining the norm but rather merely tailoring their wares to fit
norm changes that have already taken place.
As I see it, it is true that privacy norms are eroding due to factors other
than the corporate drive to monetize private information for profit; this is