1This section is drawn from (Marlin-Bennett 2004).
2
Though the work presented here is a preliminary exploration of these themes, it follows a line of
argument I introduced in my book, Knowledge Power: Intellectual Property, Information, and Privacy
(Marlin-Bennett 2004). After a brief review of the ideas I introduced there, I focus on the nature of power
in greater depth. I then turn to privacy and the control of information flows as an instantiation of power.
Finally, I explore how agents have and use power by deploying information technology to control
information flow.
I. Knowledge Power, in short1
Today’s global political economy is marked by the ever-increasing value of intangibles such as
intellectual property, proprietary information, and personal data. The essential role played by these forms
of information is made possible by the commodification of creativity and innovation as intellectual property
and the recognition of collections of facts as proprietary information. Privacy becomes problematic
because proprietary information owned by a firm (or information held by a government) often comprises
personal data – data about an individual, which the individual, him- or herself, does not own. In response,
individuals and other agents (both state and non-state actors) try to act as gatekeepers who limit or enable
data flows.
Their ability to do so depends to a large extent on the resources they can draw upon. States are
usually more able to control information flows than the individual, who is subject to the state. Firms also
tend to have more resources than individuals. Though individuals are not resource-less, they may have
only a micro-quantum of power. The resources that agents bring to bear on their attempts to control
information flow must work through (or around) the structure of domestic and international rules governing
these relations. So too must they work through or around the technological means of control and the way
Convention