Privacy Management, The Law and Global Business Strategies: A Case for Privacy Driven Design

This paper is based on the adage that 'good privacy is good business'. Personal information holds significant value and web based businesses often seek to monetize that value. Unlocking personal information value in web based businesses, like social networks, can lead to disclosure of private and sensitive information, and subsequent harm. Personal information management business practices are subject to privacy law, but perhaps more importantly practices that protect personal information can be a means to competitive advantage, and as a result they can form the basis of effective business strategy. We explore the underlying tension between transparency and disclosure in the privacy verses business strategy arena, and argue that the next generation of web businesses based on powerful Web 3.0 applications and services will demand a privacy by design approach, rather than addressing privacy concerns as an afterthought. Due to the potential power, magnitude, complexity and scope of Web 3.0 there is a need to use sophisticated technology-enabled approaches to assist users to monitor and manage personal information and its usage in a more transparent proactive fashion.