From Privacy Pragmatist to Privacy Resigned: Challenging Narratives of Rational Choice in Digital Privacy Debates

The “empowered consumer” (or “privacy pragmatist”), an autonomous individual who makes informed decisions about the disclosure of their personal information, has dominated discussions on digital privacy. Despite increasing evidence that “control” is a problematic framework through which to operationalize privacy, the power of this figure persists in academic, regulatory, and commercial discourses in the United States. This article examines how Alan Westin's “privacy pragmatist” figure has been used to frame privacy within a typology of personal preference. It begins by reviewing existing critiques of the pragmatist model and the version of privacy it supports. While critiques have tended to focus on the methodological and theoretical strengths and weaknesses of Westin's model, two recent studies suggesting that people may be resigned to online privacy violations reveal an additional rationale for broadening policy discussions about privacy beyond the model offered by Westin.