TOWARD A POLITICAL-ECONOMY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

The evolving market for personal information is seen to be troubled by the inherent difficulties involved in assigning value to intangible goods and services, of which information is one of the more nettlesome. Classical political economy and neoclassical economic theory provide incomplete and contradictory cues as to the source of comparable measures of worth. Additional problems are recognized in the negotiation of claims to ownership or alienable property rights in information that is the product of interactions between individuals and bureaucratic organizations. The concept of negative value, or consequentiality represents a promising point of entry.