Privacy as a Luxury: Why the Rich Pay to Stay Invisible in 2026
Privacy as a Luxury: Why the Rich Pay to Stay Invisible in 2026
https://www.nssmag.com/en/lifestyle/45497/privacy-as-luxury-2026-rich-pay-to-stay-invisible
Publish Date: 2026-05-26 06:47:00
Source Domain: www.nssmag.com
In 2026, the theme of privacy, terms and conditions on the use of data by the mysterious “third parties” has become an anxiety-inducing recurrence, reminding us how much of our lives and information about who we are is actually entrusted to others through technology. Between mega-billionaires who live shrouded in mystery, mega-celebrities who by policy do not let anything leak about their private lives, and periodic leaks of access credentials, intimate materials and so on, it has become alarming to realize how many eyes are on us and how fragile the secrets we have are.
In fact, if on social media the culture of visibility has exposed the risks of fame, a second, more insidious process has made privacy a precious commodity: the industrial-scale collection of personal data. This has made defending one’s data almost a necessity, turning privacy into a luxury. The paradox, however, is that fashion itself has become an industry based on data, user profiling, and the harvesting of access and information. But why?
The oil of the Web era
Worldwide, explains Yahoo Finance, the global market for companies that collect, process and resell personal information, known as data brokers, was worth 303 billion dollars in 2024 and grew to 332 billion in 2025, with an annual growth rate of 9.8%. Projections indicate it will reach 480 billion by 2029. According to Grand View Research, 35.1% of this entire huge industry consists of consumer data, ranging from demographic information to purchasing behaviors, biometric parameters and online browsing data. Information about people’s lives is one of the most profitable segments in the world.
A treasure that attracts its thieves: in 2024 alone, events such as MOAB (Mother of All Breaches), the National Public Data Breach and the Change Healthcare case saw the theft of billions of users’ data worldwide. And as early as 2018, the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal showed that user data could be used to manipulate political…
