Privacy
Is This Big Brother Today?
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upgrade-your-life/being-monitored114944170.html
Pizza
http://www.aclu.org/pizza/
But This Isn’t Fiction
Check it out:
https://aboutthedata.com/#education
Nor is This
http://digitalshadow.com/
DNA Sequencing
DNA Sequencing
DNA Sequencing
Surreptitious DNA Sequencing
The Clock
A scary example from the ACLU:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/techn
ology-and-liberty/marylandsuspends-facebook-passwordpolicy-job-interviews
https://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/surveillance-society-clock
Privacy Regained
2012
Privacy Tradeoffs
• Privacy vs security
Privacy Tradeoffs
• Privacy vs convenience/price
Privacy Tradeoffs
• Privacy vs widespread AI
How Much Do You Care?
How often do you post on Facebook?
A. Nearly every day
B. Generally at least once a week
C. Several times a year
D. Never
How Much Do You Care?
Have you ever untagged yourself from someone else’s
Facebook post?
A. Often
B. Occasionally
C. Never
Facebook and the Government
https://govtrequests.facebook.com/
Recall One Issue: Who Owns the Data?
• Conceptual Muddle: Who owns the data, you or
Facebook?
• Policy Vacuum: Do you have a right to privacy in
someone else’s corporate data?
Very Personal
Privacy
A Different
Threat RFIDs
Doing it with Cell Phones
• You go to the hospital and are diagnosed with H1N1.
On the Other Hand
The New Yorker, page 61, July 5, 1993
… And on the Subject of Phones
Policy Vacuums and Privacy
“The intensity and complexity of life, attendant upon advancing
civilization, have rendered necessary some retreat from the
world, and man, under the refining influence of culture, has
become more sensitive to publicity, so that solitude and privacy
have become more essential to the individual; but modern
enterprise and invention have, through invasions upon his
privacy, subjected him to mental pain and distress, far greater
than could be inflicted by mere bodily injury.”
Who said this when?
What is Privacy?
It’s about access:
• To my physical person
• To information about me and my life
Definitions:
• The right to be let alone [Warren and Brandeis, 1890]
Policy Vacuums and Privacy
Samuel Warren’s problem: The Boston tabloid press liked
printing lurid details of the lives of the Boston upper crust.
The existing laws:
• Laws against libel and slander.
• Property law, which, for example, prevents someone from
coming in to your house to see who’s there or check out your
bank statement.
The technology that created the problem:
• Widely circulated newspapers.
• Cameras. Kodak Brownie introduced in 1884.
Louis Brandeis
More from Warren and Brandeis
Numerous mechanical devices threaten to
make good the prediction that “what is
whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed
from the house-tops”.
Brandeis’s evolution of idea
• Right to be left alone conflicts with free speech
• Intellectual privacy
• Protection from the government (not the press)
But he didn’t know about Facebook and Google
http://tablet.olivesoftware.com/Olive/Tablet/AustinAmericanStatesman/SharedArticle.aspx?href=AAS%2F2015%2F04%
2F19&id=Ar06900
What is Privacy?
It’s about access:
• To my physical person
• To information about me and my life
Definitions:
• The right to be let alone [Warren and Brandeis, 1890]
• The right to control my “zone of inaccessibility”
Where do Privacy Zones Come From?
When information was mostly analog and local, the
laws of physics created an automatic zone of privacy.
In a digital world, privacy requires explicitly designed
institutions, incentives, laws, technologies, or norms
about which information flows are permitted or
prevented and which are encouraged or discouraged.
The Second Machine Age, p. 253.
Why Protect Privacy?
• It is a prudential right.
• A utilitarian argument:
What Can Happen When We Don’t
What Can Happen When We Don’t
What Can Happen When We Don’t
Ravi got 30 days in jail.
A: Too lenient.
B: About right.
C: Too strong
The Expectation of Privacy
One idea: Privacy is important when someone has the
expectation that it exists.
Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967)
Ruling
"The Government's activities in electronically listening to and recording
the petitioner's words violated the privacy upon which he justifiably relied
while using the telephone booth and thus constituted a 'search and
seizure' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.“
Regardless of the location, a conversation is protected from unreasonable
search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment if it is made with a
“reasonable expectation of privacy”.
Wiretapping counts as a search (physical intrusion is not necessary).
The Expectation of Privacy
One idea: Privacy is important when someone has the
expectation that it exists.
• The expectation exists:
• The expectation doesn’t exist:
But what’s wrong with this criterion?
The Legal Wrangling over GPS Tracking
Fred Robinson, 69, is accused of:
• Stealing more than $250,000
of public money from the
Paideia Academy charter
school to start a day-care
business, and
• Taking as much as $175,000
from his job in Treasurer Larry
Williams' office, where he was
allegedly a no-show.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/warrantless-gps-monitoring/
The Legal Wrangling over GPS Tracking
Here, installation of the GPS tracker device onto defendant
Robinson’s Cavalier was not a ‘search’ because defendant
Robinson did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in
the exterior of his Cavalier. Agents installed the GPS tracker
device onto defendant’s Cavalier based on a reasonable
suspicion that he was being illegally paid as a ‘ghost’
employee on the payroll of the St. Louis City Treasurer’s
Office.

January, 2012, Federal Judge David Noce,
in case against Fred Robinson accused of
stealing public money.
The Supreme Court’s Ruling in a Similar Case
January 23, 2012
United States v. Antoine Jones
2005 Police install tracking
device while car in parking lot.
“We hold that the government's physical
intrusion on the Jeep for the purpose of
obtaining information constitutes a 'search' .”
No Need to Throw it Out
• Used to throw out records because:
• Needed the space
• It was possible
• Now we don’t because:
• Bits take up very little space
• It’s hard in databases
No Need to Throw it Out
Suppose you could record the totality of your life
experience.
The storage
requirement for a
video stream and two
audio streams, plus
GPS location, is only
about 10,000 Gb per
year - which will cost
about £10 by 2017.
Spooky?
A: You would do it
B: No way.
http://cns.utexas.edu/news/entry/wearable-cameras
Is Forgetting Important?
http://www.archive.org/index.php
The Library of Congress
2013 Update:
http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2013/01/update-on-the-twitterarchive-at-the-library-of-congress/
Why Not?
• Security:
• Terrorists and just plain criminals
Why Not?
• Security:
• Terrorists and just plain criminals
The Government:
•National Crime Information Center (NCIC)
•Combined DNA Index System (CODIS)
Private Entities:
• SentryLink
Best of Both Worlds?
Alonzo Jay King, Jr. arrested for pointing a gun at a crowd in 2009.
Police took a DNA swab at the time of arrest and checked their database.
His swab matched the DNA from an unsolved 2003 rape case.
Best of Both Worlds?
The Constitutional Question
Should the government be allowed to collect your
DNA when you are merely arrested?
What do you think?
A: Yes
B: No
The Constitutional Question
Should the government be allowed to collect your
DNA when you are merely arrested?
Maryland v. King, 569 U.S. ___ (2013) held (5 to 4):
…when officers make an arrest supported by probable
cause to hold for a serious offense and bring the suspect
to the station to be detained in custody, taking and
analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee's DNA is, like
fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police
booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth
Amendment.
The Constitutional Question
Can the government collect your DNA when you are
merely arrested?
Maryland v. King, 569 U.S. ___ (2013) from the
dissent (Scalia):
… because of today's decision, your DNA can be taken
and entered into a national database if you are ever
arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason.
Best of Both Worlds?
Careful system design
Will the government (using CODIS) know everything about
you and your health?
Best of Both Worlds?
Careful system design
Will the government (using CODIS) know everything about
you and your health?
CODIS doesn't contain an
individual's DNA profile. It contains
only 13 genetic markers, known as
"junk markers," that were
specifically chosen because they
are not correlated to any physical
or medical traits.
Best of Both Worlds?
Careful system design
What if someone hacks into CODIS?
Best of Both Worlds?
Careful system design
What if someone hacks into CODIS?
There is nothing in CODIS other
than those 13 DNA markers. The
names of the people to whom the
DNA profiles belong aren't stored
in the database. Once there's a
hit, law enforcement contacts the
jurisdiction that uploaded that
profile to find out to whom it
belongs.
Another Example - Fingerprints
Convenience
vs.
Privacy?
Would you use it?
Another Example - Fingerprints
What could go wrong?
Why Not?
• Security:
• Terrorists and just plain criminals
Companies behaving badly – the fallout from Enron
Sarbanes - Oxley
• Passed in 2002.
• Requires public companies to retain business
records, including emails, for 5 years.
Why Not?
• Security:
• Terrorists and just plain criminals
People convicted of sex crimes
Why Not?
• Security:
• Terrorists and just plain criminals
But aren’t many of us “criminals”?
Why Not?
• Security:
• Terrorists and just plain criminals
• Dealing with strangers
“A society of strangers is one of
immense personal privacy.
Surveillance is the cost of that
privacy.”
Why Not?
• Security:
• Terrorists and just plain criminals
• Dealing with strangers
• Special protection for children
RFID just down the road
Why Not?
• Security:
•
•
•
•
Terrorists and just plain criminals
Dealing with strangers
Special protection for children
Accidents and disasters
Why Not?
• Security:
•
•
•
•
Terrorists and just plain criminals
Dealing with strangers
Special protection for children
Accidents and disasters
Car Black Boxes
Damned Interesting
More Information
Leveling the Playing Field
April, 2007: N.J. governor Jon Corzine’s SUV was
travelling 91 mph before it crashed.
November, 2011, Mass. Lt. Governor Tim Murray crashed
a government-owned vehicle while going 108 miles per
hour, not wearing a seat belt.
And Now for My Car
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/22/business/main6323252.shtml
As with All New Technology
The legal challenge from the side that doesn’t like the
answer:
Bachman vs. General Motors
Danielle Bachman, driving a 1996 Chevy Cavalier, crossed the median
and hit a delivery van head-on. She and her mother sued GM, claiming
that the crash was caused by her airbag inflating. They tried to prevent
GM from presenting EDR data. GM requested a Frye hearing and won.
The Frye Rule
"Just when a scientific principle or discovery crosses the
line between the experimental and demonstrable stage is
difficult to define. Somewhere in this twilight zone the
evidential force of the principle must be recognized, and
while the courts will go a long way in admitting expert
testimony deduced from a well-reasoned scientific
principle or discovery, the thing from which the deduction
is made must be sufficiently established to have gained
general acceptance in the particular field in which it
belongs."
Frye v United States, 1923, Court of Appeals, the District of Columbia.
Rule 702
The Federal Rules of Evidence (1975)
Rule 702. Testimony by Experts
If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will
assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to
determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by
knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may
testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1)
the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the
testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods,
and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods
reliably to the facts of the case.
Daubert v. Merrell Dow
Parents sue Dow claiming birth defects caused by Bendectin.
The District Court granted Dow a summary judgment based on a wellcredentialed expert's affidavit saying that maternal use of Bendectin has not
been shown to be a risk factor for human birth defects. Although parents had
responded with the testimony of eight other well-credentialed experts, who based
their conclusion that Bendectin can cause birth defects on animal studies,
chemical structure analyses, and the unpublished “reanalysis” of previously
published human statistical studies, the court determined that this evidence did
not meet the applicable “general acceptance”' standard for the admission of
expert testimony.
The Court of Appeals agreed, citing Frye, for the rule that expert opinion based
on a scientific technique is inadmissible unless the technique is “generally
accepted”' as reliable in the relevant scientific community.
The US Supreme Court reversed that ruling and held that the Federal Rules of
Evidence, not Frye, provide the standard for admitting expert scientific testimony
in a federal trial.
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993)
From the Daubert Decision
Things a judge should consider:
1. Whether the scientific theory or technique can be and
has been tested;
2. Whether it has been subject to publication and/or peer
review;
3. The known or potential rate of error:
4. The existence and maintenance of standards
controlling the technique's operation; and
5. General acceptance in the scientific community.
A Recent Example
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/22/george-zimmerman-trial-judge-noaudio-testimony-in-zimmerman-trial_n_3483631.html
Polygraphs
Admissibility in court
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygraph#Admissibility_of_polygraphs_in_court
Why Not Protect Privacy?
• Security
• White men’s clubs
• The lives of “public figures”
• Free speech (Warren & Brandeis, again)
• Medical research
• Better service
Why Not Protect Privacy?
• When the data protect you
• The case of Reade Seligmann
Why Not Protect Privacy?
• When the data protect you
• The case of Reade Seligmann (April, 2006)
12:02 AM Time stamped photo shows alleged victim dancing
12:24 AM Seligmann’s ATM card used
12:25 AM Seligmann’s cell phone used
12:46 AM Seligmann’s prox card used to enter his dorm
Why Not Protect Privacy?
• When the data protect you
• Colorado v. Cain
A man accused of vehicular homicide was acquitted
when the EDR in his car showed he was not speeding
at the time of the accident.
Why Not Protect Privacy?
http://www.salon.com/2010/09/21/t
racked_down_my_thief/
How Much Is There?
Biometrics – Technology Reduces
Privacy
• Super Bowl 2001
• Biometrics today
FBI to Give Facial Recognition Software to Law Enforcement Agencies
http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/science/journal/0
9694765
Biometrics – Technology Reduces
Privacy But Increases Security
What things about you are unique?
Biometrics – Technology Reduces
Privacy But Increases Security
What things about you are unique?