A Brief History of
Information Privacy
IC211
Colonial America
Eavesdropping
“listen[ing] under walls or windows, or the
eaves of a house, to hearken after
discourse, and thereupon to frame
slanderous and mischievous tales”
Colonial America
Governmental searches
“They may, unless the general government
be restrained by a bill of rights, or some
similar restrictions, go into your cellars
and rooms, and search, ransack, and
measure, everything you eat, drink, and
wear. They ought to be restrained within
proper bounds.” – Patrick Henry
Fourth Amendment
“The rights 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.”
The Census
Mail
“The constitutional guaranty of the right of
the people to be secure in their papers
against unreasonable searches and
seizures extends to their papers, thus
closed against inspection, wherever they
may be.”
- Ex parte Jackson (1877)
Telegraph
Boyd v. United States (1886)
“It is not the breaking of doors, and the rummaging
of his drawers, that constitutes the essence of the
offence; but it is the invasion of his indefeasible
right to personal security, personal liberty and
private property…. [A]ny forcible and compulsory
extortion of a man’s own testimony or of his
private papers to be used as evidence to convict
him of crime or to forfeit his goods, is within the
condemnation of that judgement. In this regard
the Fourth and Fifth Amendment run almost into
each other.”
Warren and Brandeis:
“The Right to Privacy” (1890)
“Instantaneous photographs and newspaper
enterprise have invaded the sacred precincts
of private and domestic life; and numerous
mechanical devices threaten to make good the
prediction that ‘what is whispered in the
closet shall be proclaimed from
the house-tops.”
Warren and Brandeis:
“The Right to Privacy” (1890)
“The common law secures to each individual the
right of determining … to what extent his
thoughts, sentiments, and emotions shall be
communicated to others, [based on] the more
general right of the individual to be left
alone.”
Warren and Brandeis:
“The Right to Privacy” (1890)
1. Intrusion upon seclusion
2. Public disclosure of private facts
intrudes, physically or
3.“One
Falsewho
lightintentionally
or “publicity”
otherwise, upon the solitude or seclusion of
4. Appropriation
another or his private affairs … is subject to
liability … if the intrusion would be highly
offensive to a reasonable person
The Telephone
“Subtler and more far reaching means of
invading privacy have become available to the
government. Discovery and invention have
made it possible for the government, by
means far more effective than stretching upon
the rack, to obtain disclosure in court of what
is whispered in the closet.”
- Justice Brandeis, dissenting
Olmstead v. United States (1928)
The Computer
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Data collected lawfully w/ consent
Data should be relevant and accurate
Purpose stated at time of collection
Data not disclosed w/o permission
Data should be protected
Individuals informed about policies
Individuals can rectify errors or problems
Collecting agency accountable for these
Recent Events!
• Edward Snowden: classified NSA documents
• Section 215 of Patriot Act:
– Private parties must disclose any “tangible thing” relevant
to terrorism investigation (with FISC approval)
• Phone record “meta-data” are collected in bulk, based
on Section 215.
• How are computers different? If at all? What is metadata?