PRIVACY AND RELATED ISSUES IN IT

Main points  What is privacy?  Privacy harms and benefits  Privacy right  Protecting privacy: Technology, markets, Rights, And Laws  Perspectives on Privacy  Information disclosures  Data mining

Why discussing Privacy?  Use of digital technology has made new threats possible and old threats more potent.  Computer technologies—databases,digital cameras, the Web, smartphones, and global positioning system (GPS) devices, among others—have profoundly changed what people can know about us and how they can use that information. Understanding the risks and problems is a first step toward protecting privacy. For computer professionals, understanding the risks and problems is a step toward designing systems with built-in privacy protections and less risk.

The too much information Age (Quinn, C5) ACCESS...either physical proximity to a person or knowledge about person You have privacy to the extent that you can cntrol who is allowed into yr zone of inaccessibility “ Privacy is social arrangement that allows people to have some level of control over who is able to access their physical selves and personal info” “zone of inaccessibility” that surround a person From the point of view of an individual want to restrict access, privacy is :

Do have any privacy in this information age????????  Do you want to know  where i live/phone/personal life ? Whitepages.com Zillow.com Facebook Google map..... “you have zero privacy anyway...” (Scott McNealy, former CEO of Sun Microsystems)  Cant deny computers, databases and Internet....make it easier than ever to get lots of info about strangers.... Is it possible to maintain Privacy in Information Age?

privacy  Privacy as good or bad thing?????  People have right to keep outsiders from knowing what is private for them Sth shouldn't be known : Avert yr eyes when yr friend typing his password  too much privacy??? society can be harmed..... info exchange among a group for business deals

Harms & benefits of privacy  Harms Plan And Do Illegal And Immoral Activities  Not ask for help, Problems in families remain unknown, until injured  Benefits  Privacy is necessary for an individual to develop his characteristic as an individual  lets us to be ourselves.... True freedom  Lets us remove our public persona hard time with a client...In a privacy of home.....blow off steam  A “moral capital”...to build relationships Respect, love, friendship and trust  Control over who knows what about us “Ladder of privacy” Level of information we share with people

There are three key aspects of privacy:. Freedom from intrusion—being left alone. Control of information about oneself. Freedom from surveillance (from being followed, tracked, watched, and eavesdropped upon)

Right to privacy?  Every person has certain natural rights:  Right to life, liberty...  Is there a natural right to privacy?  Many philosophers think privacy principles should be based on fundamental principle that each person is worthy to respect  no overall agreement on : privacy as a right...but most agree privacy is a Prudential right: Rational agents would agree to recognize some privacy rights, because granting these rights is to the benefit of society.

Privacy And Trust  “one of the key factors affecting growth of e-commerce is the lack of internet user’s trust in online sellers”  Not confident in online information privacy  To trust others.... Rely on their reputation...e-Word of mouth  Need : new laws, technical solutions and privacy policies  Reasonable limits must be set on government and business access to personal information  New communication techs must be designed to protect rather than diminish privacy

 Privacy  Key concern of Internet users  Top reason why nonusers still avoid the Internet

Case study  Sullivans Family hire nanny to keep baby  Worry about put baby alone with nanny  Install “Live security watch” on laptop  Nany doesn't know. Is it wrong that parents secretly monitor behaviour of nanny?

Rule Utilitarian evaluation  Benefits: If all parents monitored their nannies or child care providers and took actions when warranted, such as firing nannies who did not perform well, it is unlikely such monitoring would remain a secret for long  nannies would be much more careful to be on their best behavior  have the long-term effects of reducing the instances of inappropriate behavior with child  Harms:  Increasing the stress and reducing the job satisfaction of, who wants to be monitored constantly??!  These negative aspects of the job could lead to an increased turnover rate of nannies. Less experienced nannies might well provide lower quality care to the babies they tend.  Results The harms of having all parents monitoring their nannies or child care providers appear to be greater than the benefits. Hence, we conclude it is wrong for the Sullivans to secretly monitor their nanny

Social contract theory evaluation Social contract theory emphasizes: “the adoption of rules that rational people would agree to accept because they are to everyone’s mutual benefit, as long as everyone else follows the rules as well” privacy is a prudential right  It is reasonable for society to give privacy to people in their own homes, and it is also reasonable for family members within each home to give each other some privacy as well.  The nanny wouldn’t expect her interactions with the baby in a park or a grocery store to be private, but it is reasonable for her to expect privacy when taking care of the baby inside the Sullivans’s home. Hence, the Sullivans’ decision to secretly monitor the nanny was wrong because it violated her right to privacy

KANTIAN EVALUATION Let’s consider the morality of acting according to the rule: “An employer may secretly monitor the work of an employee who works with vulnerable people.” To evaluate the rule using the first formulation of the Categorical Imperative, we universalize it.  evaluate this situation using the second formulation of the Categorical Imperative.  As parents, the Sullivans are responsible for the well-being of their baby.  In order to be more confident that their baby is safe in the care of the nanny, they choose to secretly observe the behavior of the nanny.  The observation is the means to their desired end of having their baby well cared for.  The nanny naturally assumes that her interactions with the baby in the Sullivan residence are private.  By not disclosing to the nanny the fact that she is being watched remotely, the Sullivans have treated the nanny as a means to an end. Hence, the action of the Sullivans is wrong.

summary From the points of view of rule utilitarianism, social contract theory, and Kantianism, we have concluded that it is wrong for the Sullivans to secretly monitor how well their nanny takes care of their baby. Does this mean that the Sullivans must throw up their hands and simply hope for the best with regard to the quality of their child’s care? No. They do have several morally acceptable options that do not involve deceit.  They could conduct a more comprehensive interview of the nanny, they could more thoroughly check the nanny’s references, or one of them could spend a day or two a home observing the nanny from a distance as she interacted with the baby.  The Sullivans could also be clear with the nanny; they could inform her that they would like to install software on their laptop computer that allows them to see and hear what is happening in the apartment. That course of action would  respect the autonomy of the nanny and give her the freedom to agree to the monitoring, negotiate a different arrangement, or quit.

Privacy threats  Intentional, institutional uses of personal information (in the government sector primarily for law enforcement and tax collection, and in the private sector primarily for marketing and decision making)  Unauthorized use or release by “insiders,” the people who maintain the information  Theft of information  Inadvertent leakage of information through negligence or carelessness  Our own actions (sometimes intentional trade-offs and sometimes when we are unaware of the risks)

Information disclosure  Private and governmental organizations, maintain extensive record of our records and activities  Public record:  Birth certificates, marriage license, automobile record, crimina;lrecords.....  Private records:  Information about purchases....

New techs, new risks  A variety of ways in which private organizations collect and use personal information:  Facebook tags  Enhanced 911  Loyalty programs  Body scanners  RFID Tags  Implanted chips  Onstar  Automobile black list  Medical record  Digital video recorder  Cookies and flash cookies  Data mining ...

Information disclosure  Secondary use of data  use of information for a purpose other than for which the person supplied it  examples of Secondary use of data:  Google search track search query/web pages clicked--- return related result Baas--- music/ fishing?  Data mining Grocery store loyalty card ----to create more personal relationship  Collaborative filtering Predict preferances by tracking purchases ----make recommendatio

Information disclosure Many comapnies that collect info about customer activities ----use the info to provide more personalized services - Do the comapnies have the right to buy and sell information about their customer’s transactions? - Or should the person buying a product/service have the right to control the info about that transaction? - What rules should govern sharing of info collected by organizations??

personal information & ethic  The first principle for ethical treatment of personal information is informed consent  When a business or organization informs people about its data collection and use policies or about the data that a particular device or application collects, each person can decide, according to his or her own values, whether or not to interact with that business or organization or whether to use the device or application

Privacy principles for personal information  Invisible information gathering describes collection of personal information without the person’s knowledge.  The important ethical issue is that if someone is not aware of the collection and use, he or she has no opportunity to consent or withhold consent  A company offered a free program that changed a Web browser’s cursor into a cartoon character. Millions of people installed the program but then later discovered that the program sent to the company a report of the websites its users visited, along with a customer identification number in the software.

Information disclosure Opt-in Vs opt-out policy  Opt-in:  require the consumer explicitly give permission to org to share info with another orgs  Opt-out:  Require the consumer explicitly forbid org from sharing info with other orgs  direct marketing associations prefer opt-out policy, becuase opt-in is a barrier for new businesses  Opt-out policyies more common that opt-in policy

Ethics in Information Technology, Second Edition 25 Manager’s Checklist for Treating Consumer Data Responsibly

More discussion?  Protecting privacy in data mining ?is it possible?  customer-oriented privacy policy  Law and privacy protection  Tools to protect privacy on web  Methods a business cab use to reduce risk of unauthorized release of personal information by employees

حریم خصوصی  حمایت قانونی از حریم اشخاص در فضای سایبر؟  با ذکر مشخصات دقیق منابع به پرسشهای زیر پاسخ دهید :  چه قوانيني با چه عناویني در ایران از حریم شئصي حمایت مي كنند؟ در چه مواردی؟ و چه نقاط قوت و ضعفي دارند؟