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

近年来，在线跟踪的程度已经曝光，导致人们呼吁加强隐私保护法规和技术。隐私倡导者认为，缺乏隐私在个人和社会层面上是有害的;其他人认为，隐私保护带来了更少的信息共享，这导致整体福利的下降（例如，市场效率下降）。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的好处的人则认为它可能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利益，从而弥合这两种方法。我们利用正式的博弈论模型来研究隐私保护技术和监管在隐私价值是内在的模型中的功利含义。也就是说，实现的隐私水平是个人效用函数的输入。建立隐私保护有两个效果：一个是反映在更大的内在隐私的直接效果，另一个是对行为和市场结果的影响所产生的间接效果。我们的目标是确定决定这些直接和间接影响的相互作用的战略相互作用的属性。它们何时重合，导致整体福利增加，何时碰撞，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?