Privacy

In cyberspace

Table 5-1: Three Theories of Privacy

Accessibility Privacy Privacy is defined in terms of one's physically "being let alone," or freedom from intrusion into one's physical space.

Decisional Privacy Privacy is defined in terms of freedom from interference in one's choices and decisions.

Informational Privacy Privacy is defined as control over the flow of one's personal information, including the transfer and exchange of that information.

Why is Privacy Important?

What kind of value is privacy? Is it one that is universally valued? Is privacy valued mainly in Western industrialized

societies, where greater importance is placed on individuals?

Is privacy something that is valued for its own sake – i.e., an intrinsic value?

Is it valued as a means to an end, in which case it has only instrumental worth?

Is Privacy an Intrinsic or Instrumental Value? Not valued for its own sake. But is more than an instrumental value in the sense

that it is necessary (rather than merely contingent) for achieving important human ends.

Fried – privacy is necessary for human ends such as trust and friendship.

Moor – privacy is an expression of the core value security.

Privacy as an Important Social Value

Privacy is important for a diversity of relationships (from intimate to casual).

It is important for democracy. Privacy is an important social, as well as an

individual, value. Regan (1995) – we need to understand the

importance of privacy as a social value.

The Problem of Protecting Privacy in Public Non-Public Personal Information (or NPI) refers to

sensitive information such as in one’s financial and medical records. NPI has some legal protection

Many privacy analysts are now concerned about a different kind of personal information – Public Personal Information (or PPI). PPI is non-confidential and non-intimate in character –

is also being mined.

PPI

Why should the collection of PPI, which is publicly available information about persons generate controversies involving privacy? it might seem that there is little to worry about. For example, suppose someone learns that that you

are a student at VT, you frequently attend college basketball games, and you are actively involved in VT computer science club.

In one sense, the information is personal because it is about you (as a person);but it is also about what you do in the public sphere.

PPI (Continued)

In the past, it would have been difficult to make a strong case for such legislation protecting PPI, because lawmakers and ordinary persons would have seen no need to protect that kind of personal information.

Nissenbaum (1997) believes that our earlier assumptions about the need to protect privacy in public are no longer tenable because of a misleading assumption:  There is a realm of public information about

persons to which no privacy norms apply.

PPI (Continued)

Hypothetical Scenario: (a) Shopping at Supermart; (b) Shopping at Nile.com; Reveal problems of protecting privacy in

public in an era of information technology and data mining.

Search Engines and Personal Information Search facilities can be used to gain personal

information about individuals (e.g., the Amy Boyer example).

Your Web activities can be catalogued and referenced by search engines.

Scenario – using a search engine to locate a friend.

Accessing Public Records via the Internet What are public records? Why do we have them? Traditionally, they were accessed via

hardcopy documents that resided in municipal buildings.

Recall the Amy Boyer case. Would it have made a difference? Another recent case: Handgun Permits

Should that be published? Some have permits to protect against threats

Accessing Public Records via the Internet (continued) Some “information merchants” believe that because

public records are, by definition, "public," they must be made available online.

They reason: Public records have always been available to the

public. Public records have always resided in public space. The Internet is a public space. Therefore, all of public records ought to be made

available on-line.

Comprehensive Privacy Proposals Clark argues for a "co-regulatory" model. He believes that a successful on-line-privacy

policy must include: strong legislation; a privacy oversight commission; industry self-regulation.

These must also be accompanied by privacy-enhancing technologies.

A "privacy watchdog agency" and sanctions are also both needed.

Essay Assignment Topic: Privacy

Consider computing technologies that secure or threaten our privacy, such as encryption.  Should we allow technologies that support our ability to communicate and interact privately without limits or oversight, or should we set limits on technologies that insure our privacy?

Construct an argument (a well-formed essay using Toulmin structure for arguments) that takes a position with regard to the question(s) above.  Be sure to consider the readings in developing the position.

HLN Question

Should anonymity be allowed on the web? Judge orders Google to hand over logs

revealing damaging post on YouTube. http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=15968

The book 1984 gets mentioned a lot when we talk about privacy, but there are other

books that address the issue either directly or as a side point.

The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlen

The world is under attack by aliens who can control human minds by attaching themselves to any part of the body. In order to counteract this, the government forces everybody to go essentially naked.

This seems silly until you look at the controversy over new "lower-powered" airport x-ray machines that have just enough juice to see through clothing to look for weapons. Apparently the government, both in this book and in reality, find security more important than decency and privacy.

The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke.

Technology is developed that allows people to see anywhere and, eventually, anytime in the past as well, all from their own home. At first, the knowledge that anybody could be looking at a person at any time really freaked people out.

In a world of glass houses, every act is a public act and the idea that people could be watching at any time drove some to paranoia. But it also helped "clean up" the world, since people could be watching your shady business deal, your affair, or your illegal downloading.

It also addresses the ideas of "what is truth in history," since every person would remember an event a slightly different way. When the ability to see into the past and see the real truth, it was a complete revolution compared to the socially constructed and partially remembered history we have today.

What is privacy if not some simple right or complex of rights?

Reiman: Privacy is…. a social ritual or arrangement necessary to the creation of selves -- require

thoughts, body, actions to be our own.

Imagine societies in which

you and I can keep nothing secret, but others can.

you and I can pierce all secrets and everyone else is transparent.

no one can keep secrets. everyone can keep secrets at will.

Surprise birthday party? requires

someone knowing that it is my birthday sharing that information / planning with others keeping the planning hidden from me secrecy (that would be missing)

in order to have the institution of birthday parties…to be meaningful knowledge of my date of birth has to be

something that I share with some but not everyone.

I regulate "closeness" with others, in part, by sharing different sorts of information about myself major and minor what I did over the weekend

Privacy is the complex social ritual

by which others recognize our selves as our own

achieved in part by granting control over ourselves, our body, our mind AND over extensions of our selves

my diary a computer file information about me in a database

Also in order to have a birthday party, someone has to care about my birthday, expect others to care, expect that I would be touched

by whatever expression of affection is shown through the giving of a surprise birthday party.

Those different forms of caring are necessary for giving meaningful surprise birthday parties.

those different forms of care are only possible within an institution of respect for privacy

Institutions of privacy make possible expressions of care such as surprise birthday parties or greetings, as well as the keeping of secrets.

Privacy Quiz

http://www.cdt.org/privacy/quiz/

Network Affect

e.g. John Gilmore's Free S/WAN project. The idea is to deploy PC-based boxes that

encrypt your Internet packets (and decrypts other such users’ packets)

As each person installs one for their own use, it becomes more valuable for their neighbors to install one too, because there's one more person to use it with.

Because of network effects it is likely that you play a role in establishing standards

even if you do not design technological devices, advocate for public policies regarding technology, or participate in the deliberations of bodies that adopt formal standards.

If you are motivated by care, then the role you play in establishing standards should be a consideration in your choices whether to adopt a technology.

What if everyone believed that law-abiding citizens should use postcards for their mail?

If some brave soul tried to assert his privacy by using an envelope for his mail, it would draw suspicion.

Fortunately, everyone protects most of their mail with an envelope. “Safety in numbers.”

Analogously, it would be nice if everyone routinely used encryption for all their e-mail, innocent or not, so that no one drew suspicion by asserting their e-mail privacy with encryption.

Think of it as a form of solidarity.

social aspects of technological choices

means seeing that in some of my choices I am acting not just for myself but "for all humankind"

not in the manner of the philosophers' categorical imperative, but in the manner of the economists' network effects

When we make these choices, we stand in for others, effectively making choices for them