“We have to reinvent the entire Internet as we know it, shifting power from a few American tech companies to the individual who creates, and therefore owns, the data. We need to create a personal dashboard, a safe haven, for every individual's dossiers, transactions, money, and profiles”

MARCEL BULLINGAA TECHNOLOGY FUTURES SPEAKER, TREND WATCHER, AND FUTURIST

“It is, and will continue to be, an electronic arms race between those who will find ways of using personal information to target products and service to customers/users and those who will find ways of protecting and ‘owning’ personal information on behalf of the user.”

CHARLIE FIRESTONEEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE COMMUNICATIONS AND SOCIETY PROGRAM

“Privacy is in direct opposition to the business models of the largest Internet companies. The Internet does not require a login, birth date, or username, yet these companies continue to create ‘walled gardens’ that do—to create the information that fuels their revenue stream. Their business models are not simply about advertising—they are about tracking.”

JOE TOUCHDIRECTOR OF THE INFORMATION SCIENCES INSTITUTE'S POSTEL CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

“It would help if people would stop saying that privacy is dead—get over it. There is no law of physics that says that it is impossible to have privacy. We can have privacy, if that is what we as a society choose.”

BARBARA SIMONSA HIGHLY DECORATED RETIRED IBM COMPUTER SCIENTIST, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE ACM, AND CURRENT BOARD CHAIR FOR VERIFIED VOTING

“Users will insist on having the ability to encrypt their email at need. They will demand much more transparency of the private sector and, especially, their governments. Privacy conventions will evolve in online society—violations of personal privacy will become socially unacceptable.”

VINT CERFGOOGLE VICE-PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INTERNET EVANGELIST

“Within 10 years, there will be much more contentious battles over the control of identity, mobility, communications, and private life. The appropriation of personal facts for commercial value—an issue that began to emerge this year with Google and Facebook's sponsored stories—are a small glimpse of what lies ahead.”

MARK ROTENBERGPRESIDENT OF THE ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER (EPIC)

“I am struck by the fact that there is such a gulf between the European and US privacy norms. I believe this is because of World War II. When the Nazis entered Paris, the first thing they did was head for the phone directory.”

JOHN MARKOFFSENIOR WRITER FOR THE SCIENCE SECTION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES