Privacy Summary: Consumers Don't Care--If You Tell Them

The Open Data morning session ended with a general consensus that consumers would be surprised and outraged by the amount of online data that is being collected, stored, and sold--and that sooner or later some smart journalist will "discover" this secret and trigger a consumer firestorm.

Most attendees agreed that consumers are happy to trade privacy for convenience and that, ultimately, if they like the product, they'll say "whatever" about the data collection.  Most people also agreed, however, that to get to "whatever," consumers have to know that everything they do is tracked, analyzed, and sold--and that the last time anyone read a User License Agreement was 1972.  So the industry has to figure out some way to get the story to consumers before some journalist does.  Because the latter will lead to Congressional hearings, new bureaucracy, and higher legal, compliance, and PR bills...  And who wants that?