Privacy and Cyberspace
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Are privacy issues unique to cybertechnology?
Four characteristics worth noting:
The amount of personal information that can
be gathered using cybertechnology.
The speed at which personal information can
be transmitted using cybertechnology.
The duration of time in which the information
can be retained because of cybertechnology.
The kind of information that can now be
transferred because of cybertechnology.
What is Personal Privacy
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Privacy is a concept that is neither clearly
understood nor easily defined.
Sometimes we speak of one’s privacy as
something that has been:
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"lost,"
"diminished,"
"intruded upon,"
"invaded,"
"violated,"
"breached," and so forth.
What is Privacy (continued)?
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Privacy is sometimes viewed as an "allor-nothing" concept – that is,
something that one either has (totally)
or does not have.
At other times, privacy is viewed as
something that can be diminished.
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For example, as a repository of personal
information that can be eroded gradually.
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.
A Comprehensive Account of
Privacy
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Moor (1997) has introduced a theory of
privacy that incorporates important elements
of the non-intrusion, non-interference, and
informational views of privacy.
According to Moor:
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an individual has privacy in a situation if in that
particular situation the individual is protected from
intrusion, interference, and information access by
others. [Italics Added]
Moor’s Theory of Privacy
(continued)
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An important aspect in this definition is
Moor's notion of a situation.
A situation is left deliberately broad so that it
can apply to a range of contexts or "zones.“
Situations can be "declared private" in a
normative sense.
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For example, a situation can be an "activity," a
"relationship," or the "storage and access of
information" in a computer or on the Internet.
Moor’s Privacy Theory
(continued)
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Moor’s distinction between naturally private
and normatively private situations enables us
to differentiate between the conditions
required for:
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(a) having privacy (in a descriptive sense);
(b) having a right to privacy.
With this distinction we can differentiate
between a:
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loss of privacy;
violation of privacy.
Two Scenarios
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Scenario 1: Someone walks into the
computer lab and sees you using a
computer.
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Your privacy is lost but not violated.
Scenario 2: Someone peeps through the
keyhole of your apartment door and
sees you using a computer.
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Your privacy is not only lost but is violated.
Why is Privacy Important?
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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?
Privacy as a Universal Value
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Not valued the same in all cultures.
Less valued in non-Western nations and
in rural societies.
Less valued in some democratic
societies (such as Israel) where security
and safety are important.
Has at least some value in all societies.
Is Privacy an Intrinsic or
Instrumental Value?
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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
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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.
Three Ways Privacy is Threatened by Cybertechnology?
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(A) data-gathering techniques used to collect and
record personal information, often without the
knowledge and consent of users.
(B) data-exchanging techniques used to transfer and
exchange personal data across and between
computer databases, typically without the knowledge
and consent of users.
(C) data-mining techniques used to search for
patterns implicit in large databases in order to
generate consumer profiles based on behavioral
patterns discovered in certain groups.
Gathering Personal Data
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Personal data has been gathered since
Roman times (census data).
“Dataveillance” – a term coined by
Roger Clarke to capture two techniques
made possible by computer technology:
(a) the surveillance (data-monitoring):
(b) data-recording.
Dataveillance (Continued)
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Video cameras monitor an individual's
physical movements – when they shop at
certain department stores.
Some motorists are now subject to new
schemes of highway surveillance while driving
in their motor vehicles, because of new forms
of scanning devices such as E-ZPASS.
Even the number of "clickstreams" – key
strokes and mouse clicks – entered by a Web
site visitor can be monitored and recorded.
Internet Cookies
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“Cookies” are files that Web sites send to and
retrieve from the computer systems of Web
users.
Cookies technology enables Web site owners
to collect certain kinds of data about the
users who access their sites.
Because of "cookies technology," information
about an individual's on-line browsing
preferences can be "captured" whenever a
person visits a Web site.
Cookies (Continued)
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The data recorded (via cookies) about the
user is then stored on a file placed on the
hard drive of the user's computer system.
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No other data-gathering mechanism actually
stores the data it collects on the user’s computer.
The information can then be retrieved from
the user's system and resubmitted to a Web
site the next time the user accesses that site.
The exchange of data typically occurs without
a user's knowledge and consent.
Can Cookies be Defended?
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Web sites that use cookies maintain that they
are performing a service for repeat users of a
Web site by customizing a user's means of
information retrieval.
They also point out that, because of cookies,
they are able to provide a user with a list of
preferences for future visits to that Web site.
Arguments Against Cookies
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Privacy advocates argue that activities
involving the monitoring and recording an
individual's activities while visiting a Web site
and the subsequent downloading of that
information onto a user's PC (without
informing the user), violate privacy.
They also point out that information gathered
about a user via cookies can eventually be
acquired by on-line advertising agencies, who
could then target that user for on-line ads.
Computerized Merging and
Matching Operations
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Computer merging is a technique of
extracting information from two or more
unrelated databases, which contain data
about some individual or group of individuals,
and incorporating it into a composite file.
Computer merging occurs whenever two or
more disparate pieces of information
contained in separate databases are
combined.
Computer Merging
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Consider a scenario in which you voluntarily give
information about yourself to three different
organizations.
First, you give information about your income and
credit history to a lending institution in order to
secure a loan.
You next give information about your age and
medical history to an insurance company to purchase
life insurance.
You then give information about your views on
certain social issues to a political organization you
wish to join.
Computer Merging (continued)
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Each organization has a legitimate need for
information to make decisions about you.
Insurance companies have a legitimate need
to know about your age and medical history
before agreeing to sell you life insurance.
Lending institutions have a legitimate need to
know information about your income and
credit history before agreeing to lend you
money to purchase a house or a car.
Computer Merging (continued)
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Suppose that, without your knowledge and consent,
information about you contained in the insurance
company's database is merged with information
about you that resided in the lending institution's
database or in the political organization's database.
You voluntarily gave certain information about
yourself to three different organizations.
You authorized each organization to have the specific
information you voluntary granted.
However, it does not follow that you thereby
authorized any one organization to have some
combination of that information.
Computer Merging (continued)
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Case Illustration
Double-Click, an on-line advertising
company attempted to purchase
Abacus, Inc. an off-line database
company.
Double-Click would have been able to
merge on-line and off-line records.
Computer Matching
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Computer matching is a technique that
involves the cross checking of information in
two or more databases that are typically
unrelated in order to produces certain
"matching records" or "hits."
Matching or cross-referencing records in two
or more databases in order to generate one
or more hits is used for the express purpose
of creating a new file, which typically contains
a list of potential law violators.
Computer Matching
(continued)
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In federal and state government applications,
computerized matching has been used by
various agencies and departments to identify:
potential law violators;
individuals who have actually broken the law
or who are suspected of having broken the
law (welfare cheats, deadbeat parents, etc.).
Computer Matching
(continued)
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A scenario could be federal income tax
records matched against state motor
vehicle registration (looking for low
income and expensive automobiles).
Consider an analogy in physical space in
which your mail in monitored and
secretly matched or opened by
authorities.
Computer Matching
(continued)
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Those who defend matching argue:
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If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to
worry about.
Another argument is:
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Privacy is a legal right.
Legal rights are not absolute.
When one violates the law (i.e., commits a crime),
one forfeits one's legal rights.
Therefore, criminals have forfeited their right to
privacy.
Computer Matching
(continued)
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Case illustration involving biometrics:
At Super Bowl XXXV in January 2001, a facialrecognition technology was used to scan the
faces of individuals entering the stadium.
The digitized facial images were then
instantly matched against images contained
in a centralized database of suspected
criminals and terrorists.
This practice was, at the time, criticized by
many civil-liberties proponents.
Data Mining
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Data mining involves the indirect gathering of
personal information through an analysis of
implicit patterns discoverable in data.
Data-mining activities can generate new and
sometimes non-obvious classifications or
categories.
Individuals whose data is mined could
become identified with or linked to certain
newly created groups that they might never
have imagined to exist.
Data Mining (Continued)
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Current privacy laws offer individuals no
protection regarding information about them
that is acquired through data-mining activities
is subsequently used.
Important decisions can be made about those
individuals based on the patterns found in the
mined personal data.
So some uses of data-mining technology raise
special concerns for personal privacy.
Data Mining (Continued)
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Unlike personal data that resides in explicit
records in databases, information acquired
about persons via data mining is often
derived from implicit patterns in the data.
The patterns can suggest "new" facts,
relationships, or associations about that
person, such as that person's membership in
a newly "discovered" category or group.
Data Mining (Continued)
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Much personal data collected and used
in data-mining applications is generally
considered to be neither confidential
nor intimate in nature.
So there is a tendency to presume that
such data must by default be public
data.
Data Mining (Continued)
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Hypothetical Scenario (Lee):
Lee is a 35-year old junior executive;
Lee applies for a car loan;
Lee has an impeccable credit history;
A data mining algorithm “discovers” that Lee
belongs to a group of individuals likely to
start their own business and declare
bankruptcy;
Lee is denied the loan based on data mining.
Techniques for Manipulating
Personal Data
Data Merging
A data-exchanging process in which personal
data from two or more sources is combined to
create a "mosaic" of individuals that would not
be discernable from the individual pieces of data
alone.
Data Matching
A technique in which two or more unrelated
pieces of personal information are crossreferenced and compared to generate a matc,h
or "hit," that suggests a person's connection with
two or more groups.
Data Mining
A technique for "unearthing" implicit patterns in
large databases or "data warehouses," revealing
statistical data that associates individuals with
non-obvious groups; user profiles can be
constructed from these patterns.
Data Mining on the Internet
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Traditionally, data mining is done in large
“data warehouses” (off-line).
"Intelligent agents" or "softbots" acting on
behalf of human beings sift through and
analyze the mounds of data on the Internet.
Metasearch engines "crawl" through the Web
in order to uncover general patterns from
information retrieved from search-engine
requests across multiple Web sites.
The Problem of Protecting
Privacy in Public
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Non-Public Personal Information (or NPI)
refers to sensitive information such as in
one’s financial and medical records.
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NPI has some legal protection
Many privacy analysts are now concerned
about a different kind of personal information
– Public Personal Information (or PPI).
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PPI is non-confidential and non-intimate in
character – is also being mined.
PPI
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Why should the collection of PPI, which is
publicly available information about persons
generate controversies involving privacy?
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it might seem that there is little to worry about.
For example, suppose learns that that you are a
student at Rivier, you frequently attend college
basketball games, and you are actively involved in
Rivier’s 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)
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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:
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There is a realm of public information about
persons to which no privacy norms apply.
PPI (Continued)
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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
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Search facilities can be used to gain
personal information about individuals
(e.g., the Amy Boyer example).
Your Web activities can be catalogued
(Deja News) and referenced by search
engines.
Scenario – using a search engine to
locate a friend.
Accessing Public Records via
the Internet
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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?
Accessing Public Records via
the Internet (continued)
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Some “information merchants” believe that
because public records are, by definition,
"public," they must be made available online.
They reason:
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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.
Accessing Public Records via
the Internet (continued)
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Two Case illustrations:
State of Oregon (Motor Vehicle
Department);
Merrimack, NH (tax records for city
residents).
Can Technology Be Used to
Protect Personal Privacy?
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Privacy advocates have typically argued for
stronger privacy laws to protect individuals.
Groups representing the e-commerce sector
have lobbied for voluntary controls and
industry self-regulation as an alternative to
additional privacy legislation.
Now, some members of each camp support a
compromise resolution to the on-line privacy
debate in the form of privacy-enhancing tools
or PETs.
PETs
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PETs can be understood as tools that
users can employ either to:
(a) protect their personal identity while
interacting with the Web;
(b) protect the privacy of
communications (such as e-mail) sent
over the Internet.
PETs (Continued)
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Three Problems with PETs:
(1) Educating Users About the Existence
of PETS;
(2) The Principle of Informed Consent;
(3) Issues of Social Equity.
Educating Users About PETs
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How are Users supposed to find about
PETs?
DeCew (1997) – there should be a
presumption in favor of privacy for
indiciduals who can then negotiate.
With PETs, the default is that users
must discover their existence and learn
how to use them.
PETS and the Problem of
Informed Consent
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Users enter into an agreement with Web site
owners (if they have a privacy policy).
They typically have to “opt out” of having
information collected. (The default practice is
that they have opted in, unlesss they specify
otherwise.)
Policies involving PETs can’t guarantee users
against secondary and future uses of their
information (e.g., the Toysmart case).
PETS and Social Equity
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DeCew – principle of “dynamic
negotiation.”
Poorer users have fewer options (and
some may need to sell their personal
information).
Two classes – privacy rich/privacy poor.
Analogy: Poor people in third world
countries selling organs for money.
Privacy Legislation and
Industry Self-Regulation
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Can industry regulate privacy with
government regulation and privacy
legislation?
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Toysmart case
Privacy laws and Data protection
Principles:
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EU Directive;
US (a patchwork of laws).
Comprehensive Privacy
Proposals
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Clark argues for a "co-regulatory" model.
He believes that a successful on-line-privacy
policy must include:
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strong legislation;
a privacy oversight commission;
industry self-regulation.
These must also be accompanied by privacyenhancing technologies.
A "privacy watchdog agency" and sanctions
are also both needed.