, 10 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
We should allow people to sell their kidneys.
The point of the article isn't that you are being harmed by others selling your private information. Instead, it rests upon the claim that others are profiting from it while you are not.
Passing a law making it illegal for others to sell your private data doesn't help you, as either way you aren't profiting from your data. Such a law makes nobody better off -- but it does make some worse off.
Economics would measure this in terms of Pareto Efficiency. Laws that make nobody better off, but some worse off, are BAD laws.
On the flip side, while you may not profit directly from others using your private information, you still profit indirectly. For example, Google exploits the privacy of its users to measure traffic info -- but we all benefit from being able to access it.
Likewise, medical companies being able to search through private health data will allow them to profit hugely from new drugs and other developments -- but that will also make us all healthier.
Recently, there has been much discussion of "body autonomy". That isn't a thing anybody believes in, of course, it's just a code word for abortion. But imagine if we actually believed in the principle, and that we could sell our kidney, our blood, our bone marrow.
Society as a whole would be better off. People who needed the money more than a kidney would be better off. People who needed the kidney would be MUCH better off. Blood and bone marrow would have even fewer downsides and more upsides.
The same is true of "privacy autonomy". It's individuals who are the best guardians of their own privacy, not ivory tower elitists who want to impose their own decisions upon the masses.
The individuals themselves, and society as a whole, stand to benefit greatly by letting individuals control their own privacy, and not taking choices away from them like we have with their bodies.
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