Privacy Panic Distorts Tech Policy

Regulatory and legal over‑weighting of privacy risks can systematically block socially beneficial technologies and produce perverse workarounds unless decisions demand concrete evidence of harms and benefits. The book highlighted by Cowen tests this claim with the example of facial recognition: policymakers often lack solid estimates of social benefits yet treat privacy as an overriding right. — Reframing the privacy debate toward evidence‑based tradeoffs would change policing, platform regulation, and how courts balance personal rights versus societal benefits.