Chapter 5

1. Chapter 5 Privacy

2. Chapter Overview (1/2) • Introduction • Perspectives on privacy • Disclosing information • Ways information becomes public • U.S. legislation • Public records

3. Chapter Overview (2/2) • Covert government surveillance • U.S. legislation authorizing wiretapping • Data mining • Identity theft • Encryption

4. What is privacy? • The condition of having control over your own information so that you decide how much & what kind of personal information to give to others… • Privacy is a social good Deborah Johnson

5. What is privacy? • The extent to which we are known to others, the extent to which others have physical access to us, and the extent to which we are the subject of others’ attention… Ruth Gavison

6. What is privacy? • There is a close connection between our ability to control who has access to us and to information about us, and our ability to create and maintain different sorts of social relationships with different people. James Rachels

7. What is privacy? • A degree of inaccessibility of persons, of their mental states and of information about them to the senses and surveillance devices of others… Anita Allen

8. What is privacy? • The claim of individuals, groups or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others… Alan Westin

9. What is privacy? • Privacy is a “zone of inaccessibility” Edmund Byrne • Privacy violations are an affront to human dignity Edward Bloustein

10. What is privacy? • An individual has privacy in a particular situation if s/he is protected from intrusion, interference and information access by others… James Moor

11. What is privacy? • The right to be let alone… Louis Brandeis

12. Three Theories of Privacy

13. breached... intruded upon... diminished... lost... invaded...

14. The Fourth Amendment • The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

15. To what degree are computers to blame? • Computers did not invent the activity of information-gathering, but the extent to which computers can accomplish it is unprecedented • memory is cheap • processing is easy • surveillance technology is advanced • Consider amount-speed-duration-kind

16. New threats • Some data was never recorded before computers made it feasible. • Some data used to take a lot of time & effort to access. • Some things were not considered to be data before computers made it easy to store them.

17. Risks arising from so many databases • unauthorized use • inadvertent leaking of information • unchecked errors that multiply • intentional uses

18. What does personal privacy mean to you? • How important is it to you? • How would you define it? • Are you aware of the ways in which it is threatened? • To what extent would you go to protect your personal privacy? • What kind of value is it? How does it relate to our core values?

19. Privacy concerns • As of 1994, 82% of Americans were concerned (Harris Poll) • Public sector • 178 of the US government’s largest agencies have 2000 databases, each containing millions of records • Private sector • over 450 million records on 160 million people

20. How is all this personal information accessed? • You surrender some information knowingly: • you supply your medical history to doctors • you enter your SSN on loan applications • you list previous work experience on job applications • Some information is gathered without your consent or knowledge: • supermarket scanners • electronic monitoring techniques • cookies

21. Some provocative statements • You leave an electronic trail wherever you go. • You have very little (if any) control over how the information collected about you is to be used. • It is incumbent upon you to protect your own privacy. • What is the price of privacy?

22. Public sector (government) • The Privacy Law of 1974 grants individuals: • the right to know about all records pertaining to them and they must be told who else sees them & how they are used • the right to prevent their records from being used for secondary purposes or shared with anyone else

23. Yet... • government agencies regularly engage in • computer matching • computer profiling • sharing information with other agencies • selling information to the private sector

24. Internet privacy issues • Electronic Communications Privacy Act (1986) • Email • E-commerce

25. Privacy issues in the workplace • Electronic monitoring • Handling sensitive information • Requests of workers to perform tasks that are potential threats to others’ privacy

26. What about law enforcement... • Law enforcement…would be wonderfully efficient if there were no rights to privacy --- if all of the information about every citizen which is possessed by the state were centrally stored and easily accessible, if the agents of the state could at will search any person or home and seize any evidence which might relate to a crime, and bug any telephone or office. This is a description of a totalitarian state. Such sweeping powers of search and surveillance are not tolerated in a democratic society. Shaw, Westwood & Wodell

27. Homework • Read Chapter 5 • Sections 5.5-5.9

28. Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) - 1986 • Adopted to address the legal privacy issues that were evolving with the growing use of computers and other new innovations in electronic communications. • Updated legislation from 1968 that was designed to clarify what constitutes invasion of privacy when electronic surveillance is involved. • Extended privacy protection outlined in the earlier legislation to apply to radio paging devices, electronic mail, cellular telephones, private communication carriers, and computer transmissions.

29. Introduction • Information collection, exchange, combination, and distribution easier than ever • More information access  less privacy • Trade-offs • Privacy vs. need for credentials • Privacy vs. desire for free expression • Privacy vs. safety / security

30. Perspectives on Privacy • Defining privacy • Harms and benefits of privacy • Is there a natural right to privacy? • Privacy and trust

31. Defining Privacy • Privacy related to notion of access • Access • Physical proximity to a person • Knowledge about a person • Edmund Byrne: Privacy is a “zone of inaccessibility” • Edward Bloustein: Privacy violations are an affront to human dignity • Too much individual privacy can harm society • Where to draw the line?

32. Harms of Privacy • Cover for illegal or immoral activities • Burden on the nuclear family • Hidden dysfunctional families • Ignored people on society’s fringes

33. Benefits of Privacy • Individual growth • Individual responsibility • Freedom to be yourself • Intellectual and spiritual growth • Development of loving, trusting, caring, intimate relationships

34. Is There a Natural Right to Privacy? • Morton Levine: Property rights Privacy rights • Third Amendment to U.S. Constitution • Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis: Yes • Judith Jarvis Thomson: “Privacy rights” overlap other rights • Stanley Benn and Jeffrey Reiman: Privacy is a prudential right

35. Privacy and Trust • Modern life more private • Challenge: living among strangers • Remedy: establishing reputations • Ordeal, such as lie detector test or drug test • Credential, such as driver’s license, key, ID card, college degree • Establishing reputation  reducing privacy

36. Disclosing Information • Public record: information for public access • Public information: information revealed to an organization that has right to share it • Personal information: undisclosed information • Types of disclosures • Voluntary • Involuntary • Statutory

37. Ways Information Becomes Public • Rewards or loyalty programs • Body scanners • Digital video recorders • Automobile “black boxes” • Enhanced 911 service • RFIDs • Implanted chips • Cookies • Spyware

38. U.S. Legislation • Fair Credit Reporting Act • The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act • Video Privacy Protection Act • Financial Services Modernization Act • Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

39. Fair Credit Reporting Act • Promotes accuracy and privacy of information used by credit bureaus • Major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, Trans Union • Negative information kept only 7 years • Exceptions • Bankruptcies: 10 years • Criminal convictions: indefinitely

40. Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) • Rights given to • Students 18 years and older • Parents of younger students • Rights include • Reviewing educational records • Requesting changes to erroneous records • Preventing release of records without permission

41. Video Privacy Protection Act • Videotape service providers cannot disclose rental records without consumer’s written consent • Rental stores must destroy personal information related to rentals within a year of when it is no longer needed

42. Financial Services Modernization Act • Also called Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 • Creates “financial supermarkets” offering banking, insurance, and brokerage services • Privacy-related provisions • Privacy policies must be disclosed to customers • Notices must provide an opt-out clause • Companies must develop procedures to protect customers’ confidential information

43. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act • Reduces amount of public information gathered from children • Online services must gain parental consent before collecting information from children 12 and under

44. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act • Limits how doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and insurance companies can use medical information • Health care providers need signed authorization to release information • Health care providers must provide patients with notice describing how they use medical information

45. Examples of Public Records • Census records • Internal Revenue Service records • FBI National Crime Information Center 2000

46. Census Records • Census required to ensure every state has fair representation • Number of questions steadily rising • Sometimes Census Bureau has broken confidentiality requirement • World War I: draft resistors • World War II: Japanese-Americans

47. Internal Revenue Service Records • Much personal information on tax forms • Some IRS employees have misused access to IRS records • IRS has also misplaced tapes and diskettes containing records

48. FBI National Crime Information Center 2000 • NCIC • Collection of databases related to various crimes • Contains > 39 million records • Successes • Helps police solve hundreds of thousands of cases every year • Helped FBI tie James Earl Ray to assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. • Helped FBI apprehend Timothy McVeigh for bombing of federal building in Oklahoma City

49. Criticisms of the NCIC • Erroneous records have led to false arrests • Police have arrested innocent people with same name as someone in NCIC database • FBI has used NCIC to keep records of people not suspected of any crime • Corrupt law-enforcement employees have sold information and altered records • Some law-enforcement employees illegally access the NCIC

50. Code of Fair Information Practices • No secret databases • People should have access to personal information in databases • Organizations cannot change how information is used without consent • People should be able to correct or amend records • Database owners, users responsible for reliability of data and preventing misuse