Data Security, Privacy and Identity Theft: The Economics behind the Policy Debates
                            
                
                    
                                Financial Economics
                                Industrial Organization
                                Law and Economics
                                Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth
                                Microeconomics
                
                                                
                                A byproduct of improved information technology has
been a loss of privacy. Personal information that was
once confined to dusty archives can now be readily
obtained from proprietary data services, or it may be
freely available (and, as Facebook users know, often
voluntarily provided and accessible) through the Internet.
While the increased collection and dissemination of personal
data have undoubtedly provided economic benefits,
they have also diminished people’s sense of privacy
and, in some cases, given rise to new types of crime.