Concerns about "Big Data" and the implications for consumer privacy have spurred Congress and federal regulatory agencies to seek new legal protections for data privacy. But much of the debate is being conducted on broad, general terms, and often overlooks crucial distinctions between different kinds of data.
The U.S. economy embraces two broad submarkets the business-to-consumer (B-to-C) market and the business-to-business (B-to-B) market. Although both systems involve the sale of goods and services, and often the same companies and individuals participate in both, many of the underlying transactions and communications within the two systems raise significantly different issues. Nowhere is this more true than with respect to privacy. Legislation will need to be carefully tailored to protect consumer privacy interests without harming valuable business practices.
