Privacy Value Network Analysis

In this chapter we present a new method for visualising the use of personal information by stakeholders, and the transfer of value between those same groups based on the provision of tangible and intangible goods. Value network analysis combines elements of social network analysis with value chains and social capital in order to identify where value is generated in a network of stakeholders. The privacy value network (PVN) approach develops this methodology to identify the ways in which the value of personal information is realised across a network of stakeholders. Privacy Value Networks also introduce the notion of information costs within the model – and tracking personal information across a network allows for the identification of both exogenous and endogenous costs. At present, the PVN approach is primarily an analytic and visualisation tool, but in the future it should be possible to quantify value and costs across the network, and to calculate the degree of value/cost balance (and imbalance).