What we try to establish, however, is that it emanates from a premise that
commodifies personal information. As personal information is traded in, privacy
gradually attains the characteristics of a luxury commodity, in that (a) it becomes a
good inaccessible to most, (b) it is disproportionately costly to the average
individual’s ability to acquire and retain it, and (c) it becomes inversely associated
with social benefits, in that the social cost of not forsaking parts of one’s privacy in
exchange for information goods and services (e.g., free e-mail account, online social
networking) places one at a social disadvantage. Luxury goods not only possess a
price point beyond the average person’s reach, they also connote social status and
advantage.