AFFIRMATIVE-SOLVENCY-INFORMATION OWNERSHIP — PROPERTY RIGHT 22

PROPERTY REGULATION OF PRIVACY CREATES BEST OUTCOMES

A PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHT WOULD INCREASE EMPOWERMENT OF INDIVIDUALS

James Rule & Lawrence Hunter, Prof. of Sociology at SUNY-Stony Brook & Computer Scientist at (U.S.) National Library of Medicine, "Toward Property Rights in Personal Data," VISIONS OF PRIVACY: Policy Choices for the Digital Age, 1999, EE2001 -JGM P. 174-5

If a right like this were established, it should then be far easier for anyone to determine when and where information about himself or herself were circulating. Indeed, we would favour making disclosure on these matters mandatory for anyone using personal data for commercial purposes. Those responsible for any mass mailing, any unsolicited phone call, indeed, any commercial use of personal information whose release is envisaged here ought to be responsible for stating the origin of such information and the circumstances under which the right to use it was obtained. Because no commercial release would be legal without direct or indirect permission, no one engaged in the commercial use of personal data should have any difficulty in offering such an account. In this way, the plaintive complaint, 'Where did you get my name?,' heard so frequently from ordinary American citizens, would be voiced more assertively.

PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS WILL CREATE RATIONAL DECISIONS BY CONSUMERS

James Rule & Lawrence Hunter, Prof. of Sociology at SUNY-Stony Brook & Computer Scientist at (U.S.) National Library of Medicine, "Toward Property Rights in Personal Data," VISIONS OF PRIVACY: Policy Choices for the Digital Age, 1999, EE2001 -JGM P. 175-6

Here, too, the right we propose would help generate a new balance of power, fostering tensions of an entirely desirable sort between individuals and credit and insurance reporting companies. Both sides in these relationships would have to consider carefully the value that they attribute to the transmission of the data involved. In some cases, we believe, ordinary citizens would make entirely rational decisions to stop the flow entirely. Imagine, for example, a consumer put off by a credit bureau's collection of information on her retail accounts or unable to resolve a dispute with the credit bureau over her records. Under the right that we propose, she could choose simply to veto the release of further data to credit bureaus or to stop the current bureau from selling further reports. The bureau might then have the right to report that the record was sealed at the consumer's request, but no more.