An unsparing challenge to conventional thinking about data regulation, showing that privacy laws choke off beneficial technologies without protecting society and individuals from harm.

Ask anyone about the downsides of the digital economy, and one of the first concerns that comes to mind will be privacy. Indeed, activists and politicians increasingly talk about data privacy as though it were a fundamental human right.

In this boldly contrarian rejoinder, Omri Ben-Shahar argues that many privacy laws are worse than useless. They do nothing to address the serious social problems of our data-soaked world—think, for instance, of algorithmic discrimination, concentrated platform power, or social media’s impact on mental health. Meanwhile, promising digital technologies are held back by privacy regulations. Tracking devices that provide feedback on dangerous driving could cut fatal car crashes by 30 percent, yet they are prohibited in California. Facial recognition technology has already been used to rescue thousands of victims of human trafficking, yet it is largely banned in the EU. And machine-learning analysis of electronic health records would be a boon to biomedical research, but privacy rules often stand in the way.

Fear of Data offers a new paradigm for the age of AI: We should think about data not in terms of individual rights but as a shared concern, like the environment. Technology’s pollution of our digital commons can be remediated only through collective action. And just as we regulate factory emissions without shutting down factories altogether, so we can regulate data technologies without giving up all the good they have to offer. Drawing on the latest research and vivid real-world cases, Ben-Shahar helps us navigate the cost-benefit trade-offs that will enable a future of data-enriched flourishing.

Omri Ben-Shahar is Leo and Eileen Herzel Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Law School and Kearney Director of the Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics.