Understanding Privacy-Control Arrangements Based on a Theory of Interactive Computation in B2C Service Models

The impact of surveillance and social control, the dangers of big data, and other highly relevant topics have recently come to the forefront of current digital privacy discussions. However, the dynamics of dominant service models in relation to privacy-control arrangements between corporations and consumers are not well understood. As such, the main focus of this paper is to explore how to understand emerging and existing individual privacy arrangements in the Business-To-Consumer (B2C) domain. By re-addressing the dominant model based on one-off "encounters" to consider another that is based on ongoing interactions, we can begin to envision the possibility for, and consequences of, new pro-consumer control arrangements. This paper does not recommend which arrangement should prevail, but seeks to serve as a starting point for this understanding and subsequent debate by exploring how we can make sense of privacy-control arrangements in B2C service models.