An Intelligent Agent-Based Model for Future Personal Information Markets

Collection and analysis of personal information is among the most far-reaching developments in online retail practices. While the potential value of harnessing data about people is expected to improve the online service offerings, it raises reasonable concerns about privacy. Rather than cutting off opportunities to make personal data available for enhancing online services, we introduce a model where people can opt out to share personal information for a payoff value that balances out the costs of privacy. Our model is based on intelligent agents working on behalf of consumers to maximize their benefit. The analysis of the model and a proof of concept implementation are presented in this paper.