ITM2204

COMPUTER ETHICS

Chapter 5
Privacy

Corresponding page number:

 Privacy Risks and Principles
 The Fourth Amendment, Expectation of
Privacy, and Surveillance Technologies
 The Business and Social Sectors
 Government Systems
 Protecting Privacy: Technology, Markets,
Rights, and Laws
 Communications

Corresponding page number: 66

Key Aspects of Privacy:
 Freedom from intrusion (being left alone)
 Control of information about oneself
 Freedom from surveillance (from being
tracked, followed, watched)

Corresponding page number: 67

Privacy threats come in several categories:
 Intentional, institutional uses of personal
information
 Unauthorized use or release by “insiders”
 Theft of information
 Inadvertent leakage of information
 Our own actions

Corresponding page number: 68

New Technology, New Risks:
 Government and private databases
 Sophisticated tools for surveillance and data
analysis
 Vulnerability of data

Corresponding page number: 69-70

New Technology, New Risks – Examples:
Search query data
 Search engines collect many terabytes of data
daily.
 Data is analyzed to target advertising and
develop new services.
 Who gets to see this data? Why should we
care?

Corresponding page number: 70-71

New Technology, New Risks – Examples:
Smartphones
 Location apps
 Data sometimes stored and sent without
user’s knowledge

Corresponding page number: 72-73

New Technology, New Risks – Summary of Risks:
 Anything we do in cyberspace is recorded.
 Huge amounts of data are stored.
 People are not aware of collection of data.
 Software is complex.
 Leaks happen.

Corresponding page number: 74

New Technology, New Risks – Summary of Risks
(cont.):
 A collection of small items can provide a
detailed picture.
 Re-identification has become much easier due
to the quantity of information and power of
data search and analysis tools.
 If information is on a public Web site, it is
available to everyone.

Corresponding page number: 74-75

New Technology, New Risks – Summary of Risks
(cont.):
 Information on the Internet seems to last forever.
 Data collected for one purpose will find other
uses.
 Government can request sensitive personal data
held by businesses or organizations.
 We cannot directly protect information about
ourselves. We depend upon businesses and
organizations to protect it.
Corresponding page number: 75
Terminology:
Personal information – any information relating
to an individual person.
Informed consent – users being aware of what
information is collected and how it is used.
Invisible information gathering - collection of
personal information about a user without the
user’s knowledge.

Corresponding page number: 75-77

Terminology:
Cookies – Files a Web site stores on a visitor’s
computer.
Secondary use – Use of personal information
for a purpose other than the purpose for which
it was provided.
Data mining – Searching and analyzing masses
of data to find patterns and develop new
information or knowledge.

Corresponding page number: 77

Terminology:
Computer matching – Combining and
comparing information from different
databases (using social security number, for
example) to match records.
Computer profiling – Analyzing data to
determine characteristics of people most likely
to engage in a certain behavior.

Corresponding page number: 77

Two common forms for providing informed
consent are opt out and opt in:
opt out – Person must request (usually by
checking a box) that an organization not use
information.
opt in – The collector of the information may
use information only if person explicitly permits
use (usually by checking a box).

Corresponding page number: 78

Discussion Questions
Have you seen opt-in and opt-out choices?
Where? How were they worded?
Were any of them deceptive?
What are some common elements of privacy
policies you have read?

Corresponding page number: 78

Fair information principles
1.Inform people when you collect information.
2.Collect only the data needed.
3.Offer a way for people to opt out.
4.Keep data only as long as needed.
5.Maintain accuracy of data.
6.Protect security of data.
7.Develop policies for responding to law
enforcement requests for data.
Corresponding page number: 79
The right of the people to be secure in their person, 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.
—4th Amendment, U.S. Constitution

Corresponding page number: 80

 Sets limits on government’s rights to search our
homes and businesses and seize documents and
other personal effects. Requires government
provide probable cause.
 Two key problems arise from new technologies:
 Much of our personal information is no longer
safe in our homes; it resides in huge databases
outside our control.
 New technologies allow the government to
search our homes without entering them and
search our persons from a distance without our
knowledge.
Corresponding page number: 80-81
 Make possible “noninvasive but deeply
revealing” searches
 particle sniffers, imaging systems, location
trackers
 What restrictions should we place on their
use? When should we permit government
agencies to use them without a search
warrant?

Corresponding page number: 82

 Olmstead v. United States (1928)
 Supreme Court allowed the use of wiretaps on
telephone lines without a court order.
 Interpreted the Fourth Amendment to apply
only to physical intrusion and only to the
search or seizure of material things, not
conversations.

Corresponding page number: 82

 Katz v United States (1967)
 Supreme Court reversed its position and
ruled that the Fourth Amendment does apply
to conversations.
 Court said that the Fourth Amendment
protects people, not places. To intrude in a
place where reasonable person has a
reasonable expectation of privacy requires a
court order.

Corresponding page number: 83

 Kyllo v United States (2001)
 Supreme Court ruled that police could not use
thermal-imaging devices to search a home
from the outside without a search warrant.
 Court stated that where “government uses a
device that is not in general public use, to
explore details of the home that would
previously have been unknowable without
physical intrusion, the surveillance is a
‘search.’”

Corresponding page number: 83

 How should we interpret “plain view” for
search of computer or smartphone files?

Corresponding page number: 85-87

 Security cameras
 Increased security

 Decreased privacy

Corresponding page number: 87-89

Discussion questions:
Should organizers at events which are possible
terrorist targets use such systems?
Should we allow them to screen for people
with unpaid parking tickets?

Corresponding page number: 89

 Data mining
 Targeted ads

Corresponding page number: 89-93

 Informed consent
 “Do Not Track” button in browsers

Corresponding page number: 92-93

 Paying for consumer information

Corresponding page number: 94

 What we do
 Post opinions, gossip, pictures, “away from
home” status
 What they do
 New services with unexpected privacy settings

Corresponding page number: 94-96

Discussion Questions
Is there information that you have posted to
the Web that you later removed? Why did you
remove it? Were there consequences to posting
the information?
Have you seen information that others have
posted about themselves that you would not
reveal about yourself?

Corresponding page number: 94-96

 Security of online data
 Convenience

Corresponding page number: 97-98

 Global Positioning Systems (GPS) – computer
or communication services that know exactly
where a person is at a particular time
 Cell phones and other devices are used for
location tracking
 Pros and cons

Corresponding page number: 98-101

 Tools for parents
 GPS tracking via cell phones or RFID

Corresponding page number: 100-101

 The right to have material removed.
 negative right (a liberty)
 positive right (a claim right)

Corresponding page number: 101-102

Databases:
 Government Accountability Office (GAO) -
monitors government's privacy policies
 Burden of proof and "fishing expeditions"
 Data mining and computer matching to fight
terrorism

Corresponding page number: 103-109

Public Records: Access vs. Privacy:
 Public Records – records available to general
public (bankruptcy, property, and arrest records,
salaries of government employees, etc.)
 Identity theft can arise when public records are
accessed
 How should we control access to sensitive public
records?

Corresponding page number: 103-109

Discussion Questions:
 What data does the government have about
you?
 Who has access to the data?
 How is your data protected?

Corresponding page number: 103-109

 Social Security Numbers
 Too widely used
 Easy to falsify
 Various new proposals would require
citizenship, employment, health, tax,
financial, or other data, as well as biometric
information. In many proposals, the cards
would also access a variety of databases for
additional information.

Corresponding page number: 110-114

 A new national ID system - Pros
 would require the card
 harder to forge
 have to carry only one card
 A new national ID system - Cons
 Threat to freedom and privacy
 Increased potential for abuse

Corresponding page number: 110-114

Technology and Markets:
 Privacy enhancing-technologies for
consumers
 Encryption
 Public-key cryptography
 Business tools and policies for protecting data

Corresponding page number: 114-119

 Government ban on export of strong
encryption software in the 1990s
(removed in 2000)

Corresponding page number: 117

 Warren and Brandeis: The inviolate personality
 Judith Jarvis Thomson: Is there a right to privacy?

Corresponding page number: 119-121

 Transactions
 Ownership of personal data
 A basic legal framework: Enforcement of
agreements and contracts
 Regulation

Corresponding page number: 122-125

 Free Market View
 Freedom of consumers to make voluntary

agreements
 Diversity of individual tastes and values

 Response of the market to consumer

preferences
 Usefulness of contracts

 Flaws of regulatory solutions

Corresponding page number: 126-129

 Consumer Protection View
 Uses of personal information

 Costly and disruptive results of errors in

databases
 Ease with which personal information leaks

out
 Consumers need protection from their own

lack of knowledge, judgment, or interest

Corresponding page number: 126-129

Discussion Questions
How would the free market view and the
consumer protection view differ on errors in
Credit Bureau databases?
Who is the consumer in this situation?

Corresponding page number: 126-129

 EU’s rules are more strict than U.S. regulations
 EU Data Privacy Directive
 Prohibits transfer of personal information to
countries outside the EU that do not have an
adequate system of privacy protection.
 “Safe Harbor” plan
 Abuses still occur
 Puts requirements on businesses outside the
EU

Corresponding page number: 129-131

Wiretapping and Email Protection:
 Telephone
 1934 Communications Act prohibited interception of

messages
 1968 Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act

allowed wiretapping and electronic surveillance by

law-enforcement (with court order)
 Email and other new communications
 Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA)

extended the 1968 wiretapping laws to include

electronic communications, restricts government
access to email

Corresponding page number: 132-134

 The Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act (CALEA)
 Passed in 1994

 Requires telecommunications equipment be

designed to ensure that the government can

intercept telephone calls (with a court order
or other authorization).
 Rules and requirements written by Federal

Communications Commission (FCC)

Corresponding page number: 134-135

 The National Security Agency (NSA)
 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
established oversight rules for the NSA
 Secret access to communications records

Corresponding page number: 135-138