Comparative Ethics of Computing Without Consent

Consent is central to information policy around the world, and the basis for much of privacy and data protection law. This paper argues that consent to compute is a distinct notion and an important aspect of European-style data protection regimes and has not had the same treatment in the U.S., resulting in a great deal of tension between the regions. Moral grounds on which the U.S. and Europe disagree include the nature of the act of computing in relation to individuals and the moral background on which the transaction sits