Google’s Eric Schmidt on Data Privacy: The Internet Needs a Delete Button

What will privacy look like in 10 or 20 years, when smartphones became "stone age technology," replaced by wearable gadgets and perhaps even embedded ones?

Economist Nouriel Roubini described a future when we might embed technology into our eyes or skin that could track, say, our heart rates or other consumption patterns. Even Google Glass is a step in this direction. So what could that data mean for corporations? And what would it mean for users?

Google’s Eric Schmidt explained that Roubini's assessment of the future was not one he agreed with. "I think you're describing a world of tracking which I think is highly unlikely to occur, because people will be upset about it in the same way you are," Schmidt said. "Governments won't allow it, and it'll be bad business. And ultimately, in a competitive market, companies want the consumers to be happy. So it's true tracking in this context...you're taking a much broader view of the word ['tracking'] than any I would use. A situation where you go to people and say, 'Oh, here's our phone, and we're going to track you to death,' people are not going to buy that phone. It's just a bad business model." The issue, however, is that it's actually turned out to be a very good business model for many tech companies, especially in the mobile market.