While the U.S. debates enacting tougher privacy rules, "Europe offers a laboratory for studying their economic impact," reports MIT's Technology Review. Advertisers say EU-style laws would "hobble investment and innovation," citing their negative effect on Europe's €20.9 billion online advertising sector. And MIT's Catherine Tucker found in her 2010 study that within European countries that implemented the EU's 2002 e-Privacy Directive, online ads' efficacy dropped 65 percent. A survey released this year by Harvard Business School's Joshua Lerner indicates European regulations have scared off investors by 73 percent. Others, however, have found the rules a boon to business.
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