It's not clear to me that you're referencing data asymmetries in the same sense Akerlof does.
"Lemons" discusses a buyer and seller having different levels of knowledge about a product, not necessarily one another. The result, in the essay, is that buyers presume lower-quality product, and something of a self-fulfilling prophecy emerges in that sellers are aware that high-quality product won't trade on the market.
This is one of several types of Gresham's Law dynamics, where Gresham's Law can be generalised to describe both asymmetries of information and constraints on complexity.
The knowledge of the counterparty case verges more on one of control, in being able to know the other party's interests, motives, and/or vulnerabilities. That's ... well outside the scope of "Lemons", and has far more to do with power and control dynamics.
(Though it might also result in presumptions on the part of customers of such a monopoly.)
Part of the answer, in both cases, is to provide more information or trust through various mechanisms, including regulation, audits, etc.
The part of the ISP market which is as described in "Lemons" is in knowing what information is or isn't collected, and how it's used. The inability to do so does lead to race-to-the-bottom tendencies, a phenomenon also frequently described as "a (sort of|kind of) Gresham's Law".
Searching for variants of that phrase within Google Books is quite interesting. Examples include: legal citations, neighbourhoods, immigration/immigrants, coin, politicians, divorce law, environmental regulations, mass / popular media, television, bicycles, software, consumer electronics, and more.
The information asymmetry I was referencing was simply the knowledge of whether data is or is not recorded and how much is recorded. A VPN service that records more data is what I would consider a lower quality product and a lemon. Once a company starts collecting information it can use that data for a variety of other purposes such as selling it to advertisers. That extra revenue stream is what would make a lower quality VPN product cheaper than a higher quality one with no logging.
Also the end result of a market full of lemons is something that develops over time. I don't think the VPN market is mature enough for buyers to have learned to presume a lower quality product. I would even argue that the information asymmetry is so extreme in the case of VPN services, that a user can purchase a product, user it for years, and still not be able to accurately assess its quality. This would slow down the development of a true market for lemons.
The "Market for Lemons" dynamic has an earlier precursor, the horse trader. In looking up Gresham's Law references, I've run across H.L. Mencken's "Bayard vs. Lionheart" (1926), which references "David Harum". That was a novel, and film, and later (after Mencken's writing) a radio serial, about a horse trader.
Horses, as complex and nonuniform goods, had developed a reputation for unreliable and underhanded dealing. The lasting legacy of the novel itself is the expression "horse trading".
"Lemons" discusses a buyer and seller having different levels of knowledge about a product, not necessarily one another. The result, in the essay, is that buyers presume lower-quality product, and something of a self-fulfilling prophecy emerges in that sellers are aware that high-quality product won't trade on the market.
This is one of several types of Gresham's Law dynamics, where Gresham's Law can be generalised to describe both asymmetries of information and constraints on complexity.
The knowledge of the counterparty case verges more on one of control, in being able to know the other party's interests, motives, and/or vulnerabilities. That's ... well outside the scope of "Lemons", and has far more to do with power and control dynamics.
(Though it might also result in presumptions on the part of customers of such a monopoly.)
Part of the answer, in both cases, is to provide more information or trust through various mechanisms, including regulation, audits, etc.
The part of the ISP market which is as described in "Lemons" is in knowing what information is or isn't collected, and how it's used. The inability to do so does lead to race-to-the-bottom tendencies, a phenomenon also frequently described as "a (sort of|kind of) Gresham's Law".
Searching for variants of that phrase within Google Books is quite interesting. Examples include: legal citations, neighbourhoods, immigration/immigrants, coin, politicians, divorce law, environmental regulations, mass / popular media, television, bicycles, software, consumer electronics, and more.
See also: the Tyranny of the Minimum Viable User https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/69wk8y/the_tyr...
I've also explored Gresham's Law quite a bit: https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/search?q=%22gresham%27s...