Giving up your privacy is going to cost you money

Many of the arguments in favor of privacy, treat it as something inherently good to have, or others (rightly) point to political harms because of increased state and corporate power due to lack of privacy. These effects are long term and intangible and privacy is often traded for shorter term and tangible benefits.

But soon giving up your privacy is going to cost you cold hard money. Every buying decision is a negotiation, either explicitly (haggling in subzi mandis) or implicitly (market forces on a fixed price shop). In negotiations information, or asymmetry of it, is power. Hence, lack of privacy is lack of power in negotiations. The more corporates know about you the more accurately they can judge how “badly” you want something and hence charge you higher prices. This is already happening. Staples an online office products vendors in US, was found to vary prices depending on whether it thinks that the person visiting the site has a physical office store nearby (link). People who didn’t have story nearby were quoted higher prices than who had. Similarly, Princeton Review was found to charge higher prices to people who lived near “Asian zip codes” (link).

The data gathered by your fitness tracker might reveal your erratic sleep pattern to your heath insurance company leaving a heavy dent on your pocket. Or your impulsive spending habit might make it hard for you get loan. Anyway, the less they know the better.