Loss of privacy highlights cost, CMU professor says

Debra Erdley reports:

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg declared privacy dead and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange trampled the corpse, but researchers at Carnegie Mellon University believe privacy of personal information remains a key concern in the digital age.

“When you lose it, you realize the cost of it,” said Alessandro Acquisti, a Carnegie Mellon professor of information systems and public policy who extensively researched data privacy.

Acquisti moderated a panel discussion among digital privacy researchers at the school’s Oakland campus Wednesday as a prelude to the fourth International Data Privacy Day, an event the digital community in the United States, Canada and 27 other countries will mark Friday.