NSFSaTC-BSF: CORE: Small: The Utilitarian Implications of Privacy Protections

近年来，在线跟踪的程度已被曝光，导致人们呼吁加强保护隐私的监管和技术。隐私权倡导者认为，缺乏隐私在个人和社会层面上是有害的；其他人则认为，隐私保护导致信息共享减少，从而导致整体福利的减少(例如，市场效率的降低)。这两种观点之间的一个主要差异是，那些倡导隐私的人往往强调隐私的内在价值，而那些质疑隐私保护好处的人认为，这可能会对市场结果产生不利影响。该项目的目的是通过分析隐私保护对整体福利的影响，同时考虑隐私的内在好处，在这两种方法之间架起桥梁。我们利用形式博弈论模型来研究隐私保护技术和监管的功利性含义，在模型中隐私的价值是内在的。也就是说，实现的隐私水平是对个人效用函数的输入。建立隐私保护有两个影响：一个是反映在更大的固有隐私上的直接影响，另一个是由对行为和市场结果的影响而产生的间接影响。我们的目标是确定决定这些直接和间接影响相互作用的战略互动的属性。它们在什么时候重合，导致整体福利增加，什么时候发生冲突，可能导致净福利减少？

In recent years the extent of online tracking has come to light, leading to calls for stronger privacy-­protecting regulation and technologies. Privacy advocates argue that the lack of privacy is harmful at individual and societal levels; others argue that privacy protections bring about less information sharing, which leads to a decrease in overall welfare (e.g., a decrease in the efficiency of markets). One major discrepancy between the two viewpoints is that those who advocate for privacy often emphasize the intrinsic value of privacy, whereas those who question the benefits of privacy protections believe it may have a detrimental impact on market outcomes. This project's aim is to bridge the two approaches by analyzing the effects of privacy protections on overall welfare while accounting for the intrinsic benefits of privacy. We utilize formal game-­theoretic models to study the utilitarian implications of privacy protecting technologies and regulation in models wherein the value of privacy is intrinsic. That is, the realized level of privacy is an input to individuals' utility functions. Instituting privacy protections has two effects: a direct effect reflected in greater intrinsic privacy, and an indirect effect arising from the effect on behavior and market outcomes. Our goals are to identify properties of strategic interactions that determine the interplay of these direct and indirect effects. When do they coincide, leading to an overall welfare increase, and when do they collide, possibly leading to a net welfare decrease?