Privacy

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Privacy

• In cyberspace

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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.
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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?

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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.

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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.

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The Problem of Protecting Privacy in Public

• Non-Public Personal Information (or NPI) refers
  to sensitive information such as in ones
  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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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/?p15968

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• 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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)

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in order to have the institution of birthday
partiesto 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

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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

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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.

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Privacy Quiz

• http//www.cdt.org/privacy/quiz/

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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