Coming soon to a screen near you: the Electronic Frontier - Electronic Frontier Foundation conference of electronic advertising - thoughts on business/consumer relations and privacy issues - includes related articles on brand marketing and a Lotus 1-2-3 ad

RELease 1.0, June 30, 1991 by Esther Dyson

While the mainstream pc world was at PC Expo and following IBM'S courtships of Lotus and Apple, smaller groups convened to look at the more distant future. In particular, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and the Electronic Frontier Foundation were assessing the future of the electronic infrastructure under the banner Civilizing Cyberspace: Minding the Matrix," while the Global Business Network gathered a group of clients (MCA/ Universal, ABC, Bellsouth, the Leo Burnett ad agency, Pillsbury) to discuss "The Future of Electronic Advertising." Same topic, different concerns: Either side might have learned a lot more by going to the other's meeting. But would they have been ready to hear it? The future is a strange place. As GBN's Jay Ogilvy observes, the scenario considered most implausible is frequently the one that ultimately unfolds. A scenario, of course, is not so much a prediction as a piece of science fiction. Take a world model, add a plausible premise, and build a new, consistent world model around it. The goal is not to be right in every respect, but to provoke discussion that may in fact change the very future one is assessing. (The Art of the Long View, a book by GBN founder Peter Schwartz, describes the process in detail.) Herewith our scenario, as developed over a number of plane rides between meetings, punctuated by electronic and electric disturbances - phone failures and thunderstorms: Our world model includes widespread use of high-bandwidth electronic communications over what we call the global network," actually a collection of interconnected networks. Each home has access to wide variety of electronic media, both for receiving mostly canned programming - entertainment and information - and for two-way communication with other people, businesses and agents. This happens through some combination of the government's National Research and Education Network, government subsidies, and a vigorous competitive market that wastes a lot of energy but ends up providing the best possible system to the few who care and will pay for it and an adequate system for the rest of us. (See page 9.) The government does play a vital role in the premise underlying our scenario. It passes legislation clarifying existing rights to privacy and to personal property implicit in the Constitution, and thereby establishes the right and ability of people to own and transfer data about themselves. That is, the right to privacy is recognized as an economic right: Juan can sell the right to one-time use of his name and address and any transactions he may make to Alice, who can then sell it (for one-time use only, after which it expires) to a third party .*** Typically, the user of the name doesn't actually "see" or possess the name; Alice uses it on his behalf, in a mailing, a phone call or some other communication. Like software, this information needs a specific license to be reused (in any form) beyond the terms of the original contract. The other party to the original transaction can use the record only in connection with that particular transaction - for billing, contract management and the like. Can he use it to check up on customer satisfaction? Sure. So what about for follow-on sales? Hmm. That's a sticky question, but in the presumption-of-privacy environment we hope to see created, it might be resolved in the customer's favor.

What happens to privacy in a world where economics rules?

Economics can provide incentives for protection of privacy without

government "assistance" beyond clearly stated law. Privacy becomes

the vested interest not only of individual data owners

but of data banks dedicated to the maintenance and licensing of

the data on behalf of the data's owners. Protection of privacy

does cost money. You can't legislate that fact away, but now