The American information privacy schizophrenia: The U.S. is schizophrenic about information privacy, wanting it in theory and giving it away in practice.

Information must be communicated, but it must also be about something. Information about people has become much more important than it was previously I p

because of the great opportunity for a revolution in marketing in which manufacturers can target potential customers in ways not previously possible.

A commonly heard issue that arises in the information age is the question of privacy - a question about which there is great confusion and about which Americans in particular may be said to be schizophrenic. The privacy that many complain is being eroded is not being taken from us. Most of us are giving it away. This privacy, which I shall call personal information privacy, is information about ourselves. Some individuals and some privacy and other groups, such as the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, argue in favor of legislation protecting personal information privacy and claim that everyone has a right to such privacy. But it is difficult to defend any strong sense of a right to such privacy when so many people blithely give the information away. Sometimes they do so for no return; sometimes for minimal return, such as the possibility of being notified about products they may be interested in purchasing- and sometimes for more substantial gain.

The importance of personal information to business, and one American response to privacy, is illustrated by the extraordinary offer made by the small company Free-PC.com. In February, the company offered 10,000 (eventually to go to a million) Compaq personal computers free to those willing to provide a variety of information about themselves (including their age, interests, income and hobbies) to receive ads on the Internet, and to have their Internet activities tracked. That information is obviously worth more to the company than the price of a 333 MHz computer with a 4 GB hard drive. The computer is free. It's the information about the users that is valuable. Whether giving up a large area of personal privacy is worth a computer might be a matter of debate and of personal choice. But it is difficult to defend any strong right to personal information privacy when so many value it so cheaply.

Rather than a right to personal information privacy, what most people seem to want is protection from harm as a result of the misuse of personal information. They fear identity theft, or credit card theft, or some harm - psychological, financial or physical - as a result of information about themselves being widely and easily available.-It is not their privacy that is violated, but their sense of security. Yet the two issues are often confused and the arguments, similarly confused.

The information age is changing the nature of privacy. Nonetheless, as a society we have had almost no debate about what the legitimate limits on privacy are,

why they are important, or what violates those limits. Since business is one of the two potential abusers of information - the other being government - this is a clear issue for business ethics. But it is one that has generated very little attention in the literature, and one that most businesses still do not include anything about in their codes.

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