Framework

Privacy as a public-good dilemma

The question it answers

When a product team designs data-consent flows, how should it coordinate users so that one person's choice to share data does not expose others' privacy?

Origin
Fairfield and Engel, 2015; Ostrom, 1990
Diagram type
Cycle
Level of analysis
Team
Topics
Data & analyticsAI for leaders
Magnifying lens over a line chart tile, icon for data and analytics

Diagram

Privacy as a public-good dilemma

  1. Each person optimises their own benefit when sharing data
  2. One person's data reveals information about others (externality)
  3. Shared privacy falls below the level that is best for everyone
  4. Group coordination (communication, framing, sanctions, institutions) is needed to restore privacy

Sources

References

Listed A–Z by author surname, Harvard style. A source with a DOI links to https://doi.org/…; one without links to its page or says plainly that it has no DOI.

  1. Fairfield, J.A.T. and Engel, C. (2015) ‘Privacy as a public good’, Duke Law Journal, 65(3), pp. 385–457.No DOIscholarship.law.duke.eduSource page
  2. Ostrom, E. (1990) Governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.doi:10.1017/cbo9780511807763Source page