Kristie Lam
Volume 75, Issue 6, 1795-1822
Privacy self-management fails to protect consumer privacy. In the advent of the Internet, individuals had the option to tailor how their personal data was used throughout digital markets. However, since the digital markets are dominated by a few large conglomerates, namely Meta and Google, consumers have little choice to determine how they will use the internet in the face of the blatantly decreasing quality of privacy protection. The lack of adequate privacy protections in the digital markets harms consumers and erodes democratic institutions. Given the societal ramifications of consolidated digital markets on consumers, antitrust laws are the appropriate mechanism to remedy privacy harms and rebuild the guardrails of privacy protections, and the Federal Trade Commission should aggressively enforce these laws. Antitrust and privacy litigation should work in tandem to protect consumers who have had their personal information stolen and misappropriated, and to rebuild trust in democratic institutions.