Lessig: Future Tech Will Help Privacy Catch Up With the Internet (wsj.com)

An anonymous reader writes: In a new interview, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig shared his view of the future of privacy in this age of data breaches. "The average cost per user of a data breach is now $240 — think of businesses looking at that cost and saying, 'What if I can find a way to not hold that data, but the value of that data?' When we do that, our concept of privacy will be different. Our concept so far is that we should give people control over copies of data. In the future, we will not worry about copies of data, but using data." Lessig sees new technological advancements as the key to shoring up our privacy, which has been eroding since the dawn of the internet. Being able to act on data without holding it is key: "If I ping a service, and it tells me someone is over 18, I don't need to hold that fact. The level of security I have to apply [is not] the same [that] would be required if I was holding all of this data on my servers. This will radically change the burden of security that people will have."

Comments

Funny How A Few Short Months Change Perceptions

[RobotRunAmok]

I used to read "Lessig" and think, "right, he's that often clever crypto-tech guy." Now I see the name and think, "pathetic, over-his-head failed politician." Not really fair to him, I know, but I can't help it...