5 - Notice and Choice: The Allure and the Illusion

Summary

Privacy in public is a form of informational privacy. Informational privacy consists in the ability to control what others do with your information. You lack that control if you cannot give free and informed consent to how others process your information. How does one ensure free and informed consent across a sufficient range of cases? Our answer is that informational norms ensure that. That is not, however, the dominant legislative and regulatory answer, which is Notice and Choice. The Notice is a presentation of the terms governing the use of information. The Choice is an action signifying acceptance or rejection of the terms. Chapter 5 argues that Notice and Choice is clearly fails to ensure free and informed consent, and concludes that maintaining and creating norms is the most reasonable alternative.