Executive Summary
This study estimates the costs of various aspects of proposed online privacy legislation. Using what I believe to be fairly conservative assumptions, I find that these costs easily could be in the billions, if not tens of billions of dollars. This fact alone suggests that proposed regulations that would flow from these laws could have a substantial economic impact on consumers and businesses.
I argue that further regulation of online privacy is premature for three reasons. First, the costs could be substantial. Second, I am not aware of any good quantitative estimates of the benefits of such regulation. Third, the market is reacting to ensure that at least some of the consumer concerns related to online privacy are being addressed.