In a recent study the authors Aleecia McDonald and Lorrie Faith Cranor of Carnegie Mellon University found out that the time allocated for reading online privacy policies on the websites you regularly visit would produce a total loss in productivity and time equalling $365 billion a year.

These findings are based on empirical data estimating that an average internet user invests approximatly USD 3000.- per year getting to grips with the various privacy policies of their service providers.

But – bluntly speaking – as “noone” reads privacy statements anyway, this is not a real economic loss. So you might say it is an academic problem. But still it raises the interesting question what it would cost if you as an internet end-user wanted to make use of your civil rights and gain some souvereignty towards your service providers.

So here the question arises how semantic web technologies, especially the Policy Aware Web, can be a viable solution to this economic problem. But the answer to the question is a political one, which means it will be up to the politicians to recognise this problem and support a (technological?) solution … which from my point means that there are interesting times ahead for a Policy Aware Web.

Read a more detailed coverage of the study at out-law.com.

Author: Tassilo PellegriniTassilo Pellegrini studied International Trade, Communication Science and Political Science. He started his career at the Department of Media Economics at the University of Salzburg and later worked as a project manager at Prognos AG, the European Center for Policy and Economic Research ...