Co‐managing online privacy: a call for joint ownership

Argues that online privacy rights of consumers are not absolute rights but joint ownership privileges they share with online marketers. Consumers can voluntarily transfer these privileges to onlinemarketers under certain mutually agreeable conditions. Accordingly, online marketers can facilitate, motivate and compensate such transfers by designing various innovative personalization strategies that, rather than jeopardize the privacy privileges of consumers, would benefit them. Technology and society can progress only through such partnerships.Cites two consistently successful net companies, Dell and eBay, as examples of such partnered personalizations. In addressing the consumer privacy problem, one must recognize there are sets of rights and duties on both sides of marketing exchanges. There are several ethical issues involved such as human dignity and value and consequent rights to consumer privacy, autonomy, territoriality, anonymity, security, and protection. A balanced solution to the privacy-problem must respect and safeguard rights and duties on both sides of the exchange-equation, consumers and marketers. The traditional over-emphasis on