Why Not Privacy By Default?

We live in a Track-Me world, one from which opting out is often not possible. Firms collect reams of data about all of us, quietly tracking our mobile devices, our web surfing, and our email for marketing, pricing, product development, and other purposes. Most consumers both oppose tracking and want the benefits tracking can provide. In response, policymakers have proposed that consumers be given significant control over when, how, and by whom they are tracked through a system of defaults (i.e., “Track-Me” or “Do-Not-Track”) from which consumers can opt out. The use of a default scheme is premised on three assumptions. First, that for consumers with weak or conflicted preferences, any default chosen will be “sticky,” meaning that more consumers will stay in the default position than would choose it if an affirmative action were required to reach the position. Second, that those consumers with a fairly strong preference for the opt-out position—and only those consumers—will opt out. Third, that where firms oppose the default position, they will be forced to explain it in the course of trying to convince consumers to opt out, resulting in well-informed decisions by consumers. This article demonstrates that for tracking defaults, these assumptions may not consistently hold. Past experience with the use of defaults in policymaking teaches that Track-Me defaults are likely to be too sticky, Do-Not-Track defaults are likely to be too slippery, and neither are likely to be information-forcing. These conclusions should inform the “Do-Not-Track” policy discussions actively taking place in the U.S., in the E.U., and at the World Wide Web Consortium. They also cast doubt on the privacy and behavioral economics literatures that advocate the use of “nudges” to improve consumer decisions about privacy

Consumer-Facing Competition Remedies: Lessons from Consumer Law for Competition Law

Assigning consumers the task of disciplining markets is frequently attempted but rarely achieved. We teach financial literacy classes with the hope that consumers will avoid overly-risky and overly-costly financial products. We require calorie labels with the hope that consumers will use them to reduce obesity. We pre-select a no-overdraft default with the hope that consumers will stick with the default and avoid overdraft fees. None of these approaches are terribly effective at achieving the ends sought because, in each instance, the intervention—the classes, the disclosures, or the defaults—produce unexpected heterogeneous consumer responses and are met with a barrage of firm countermeasures. So too with consumer-facing competition remedies, the firm subject to the remedy gets the last move and can run circles around the remedy. Reducing firm access to consumer data holds some promise for slowing the speed at which firms can run; microtargeted tactics are likely to be more effective than generic plays in undercutting consumer-facing remedies, and firms need personal data to microtarget. By changing firm incentives, performance-based remedies promise to cut through this dynamic entirely, and while their effectiveness in the competition realm remains to be seen, they should be preferred to the consumer-facing remedies that have already failed. Parallel to the imposition of performance-based competition remedies on firms that have engaged in anticompetitive conduct, competition authorities must engage in market-wide regulation that facilitates effective consumer comparison shopping and therefore substantive competition. Given widespread concern about concentration in so many industries today, competition law may need to break new legal ground to remedy and constrain anticompetitive behavior

Evidence and Ideology in Assessing the Effectiveness of Financial Literacy Education

Financial literacy education has long been promoted as key to consumer financial well-being. Yet the claim has never had more than negligible statistically significant empirical support. This review (1) sets forth the model of financial literacy education underlying public support for these programs today, (2) identifies pervasive and serious limitations in existing empirical research used by policymakers as evidence of the effectiveness of this education, and (3) recommends a number of alternative public policies suggested by the existing research

Senior Recital: Lauren Willis

Kemp Recital HallMarch 3, 2012Saturday Afternoon1:00 p.m

Evidence and Ideology in Assessing the Effectiveness of Financial Literacy Education

Financial literacy education has long been promoted as key to consumer financial well-being. It is widely embraced as an effective alternative to substantive legal regulation. Yet its effectiveness has never had more than negligible empirical support. This review (1) sets forth the model of financial literacy education subscribed to by policymakers today, (2) identifies pervasive and serious limitations in existing empirical research used by policymakers as evidence of the effectiveness of this education, and (3) recommends a number of alternative public policies suggested by the existing research. Researchers should be particularly cautious in the presentation of their findings, so that academic work will contribute to the public policy discussion empirical, rather than ideological, assessments of financial literacy education

Evidence and Ideology in Assessing the Effectiveness of Financial Literacy Education

Financial literacy education has long been promoted as key to consumer financial well-being. It is widely embraced as an effective alternative to substantive legal regulation. Yet its effectiveness has never had more than negligible empirical support. This review (1) sets forth the model of financial literacy education subscribed to by policymakers today, (2) identifies pervasive and serious limitations in existing empirical research used by policymakers as evidence of the effectiveness of this education, and (3) recommends a number of alternative public policies suggested by the existing research. Researchers should be particularly cautious in the presentation of their findings, so that academic work will contribute to the public policy discussion empirical, rather than ideological, assessments of financial literacy education

THE EFFECT OF INCREASED PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Increased levels of obesity, particularly among American youth, have consistently been cause for concern over the last few decades. Additionally, the amount of time youth spend being active throughout the day has consistently decreased. Physical activity levels among school-aged children in America are effected by any number of reasons, but this study points to the possibility of time spent being physically active during the school day having the greatest effect on a student’s overall level of physical activity. Increased pressures from different entities on local schools to improve student performance on standardized test scores have contributed to a decline in students’ time spent being active during the school day. The inverse relationship that exists between levels of obesity and amount of time spent being active is a call to action and cause for more research in this area if a solution is to be reached with the obesity epidemic in America. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of increased physical activity on the academic performance of elementary students in a rural, Central Kentucky community. Academic performance is an overarching term that encompasses academic achievement through standardized testing, academic behavior, and cognitive skills and abilities. Ninety students in 4th and 5th grade with an average age of 10 from one elementary school participated in the study. After obtaining parental consent and students’ verbal consent, students were divided into two intervention groups and one control group. Each intervention group received extra physical activity for three days a week for four weeks. Activity for students was measured with an EKHO MVPA accelerometer for the duration of each activity session during their respective intervention weeks. Standardized test scores were obtained through the school’s measure of academic progress (MAP) assessment. Student behavior was assessed through direct systematic observation and teacher-based questionnaires. Finally, the STROOP color word test was used to measure student’s cognitive processes and executive functioning skills. The results from the STROOP color word test provided evidence of a significant relationship between physical activity and cognitive skills (ttest1=2.63, p \u3c .01, ttest2=7.14, p \u3c .001). Additionally, the teacher-based questionnaire demonstrated a significantly positive relationship between physical activity and student behavior (t = -2.65, p \u3c .01). Boys were significantly more active than girls (tfemale = -2.71, p \u3c .01). There were also significant correlations between females and the teacher-based questionnaires, the white race and the STROOP color word test, and the white race and on-task behavior. No significant relationships were found between physical activity and overall academic performance or academic achievement