Privacy Now A Commodity

The contrast is stark. As some realms become tightly private – e.g. what’s controlled through arbitration or non-disclosure agreements – others, like search and buying histories, are laid bare, although there is no way to find out who see them. This paradox of the internet is the subject of a New York Times magazine essay by Amanda Hess. “We’ve come to understand that privacy is the currency of our online lives, paying for petty conveniences with bits of personal information,” she writes. “But we are blissfully ignorant of what that means. We don’t know what data is being bought and sold, because, well, that’s private.” The kicker about privacy is you can buy it back – but it’s not cheap.