An information imbalance between two parties in a transaction. The concept was developed within economics (primarily considering imbalances between buyers and sellers) but has been more recently applied to privacy.
For instance, a website may gather users’ personal data without disclosing to them how the information will be used or who will have access to it. As a result, there may be an imbalance of power between the user and the data collector, with the latter having greater control over how the user’s personal data is used and shared.
Another example is the power obtained by viewing somebody’s social media profile before meeting them in person and then using the information obtained to manipulate the interaction.
Further reading:
Hancock, J.T., Toma, C.L. and Fenner, K., 2008. I know something you don’t: the use of asymmetric personal information for interpersonal advantage. In: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 413–16, https://doi.org/10.1145/1460563.1460629.
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Hancock, J.T., Toma, C.L. and Fenner, K., 2008. I know something you don’t: the use of asymmetric personal information for interpersonal advantage. In: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 413–16, https://doi.org/10.1145/1460563.1460629.
