CISB 412Social and Professional Issues

Understanding Privacy

Reference

• Materials used in this presentation are extracted mainly from the following texts, unless stated otherwise.

Michael J. Quinn “Ethics for the Information Age”, 3rd edition. Pearson 2009

Learning Outcomes

• At the end of this lesson you should be able to▫ Explain the perspectives of privacy▫ Describe ways privacy can be compromised through

the usage of technology▫ Apply the ethical principles on the issues of privacy

to establish morality of the action

What is Privacy ?

Defining Privacy

• Discussions about privacy revolve around the concept of ‘access’

• Access can be seen from 2 perspectives:▫ Physical proximity to a person▫ Knowledge about a person

• You exercise your privacy when you :▫ lock the door behind you when using a restroom▫ choose not tell the clerk at the video shop your

mobile number

Defining Privacy

• “Social arrangement that allows individuals to have some level of control of who is able to gain access to their physical selves and their personal information”

• Violating someone’s privacy is considered an insult to the person’s dignity.

Harms of Privacy

• People may take advantage of privacy to plan and cover up illegal or immoral activities

• Examples:▫ Family violence▫ Social and economics inequities

• A challenge in parenting duties• Love thy neighbour – who is my neighbour?

Benefits of Privacy

• Individual growth, individual responsibility – a way society acknowledge and communicates to an individual that he/she is responsible or his own development as a unique person

• Freedom to be yourself, allow us to remove our public persona

• Shut out the world, be more creative• Development of loving, trusting, caring, intimate

relationships – privacy ladder

Privacy and Trust

• Trusting is easier a couple of centuries ago• Greater emphasis on community, lesser on

individual• Pressure to conform

Privacy and Trust

• Modern life more private• Challenge: living among strangers• How can we be sure that …

▫ Taxi driver will get us to our destination without hurting us?

▫ The teachers at school are not child molesters?▫ Bank knows that if it loans someone money, it will be

repaid?

Privacy and Trust

• In order to trust, we must rely on the reputations• This was easier in the past.• Today’s society must get information out of

people to establish reputation:▫ Through ordeal e.g. lie detector, drug test▫ Through issuing/requesting credentials e.g.

drivers license, badge, id, degree transcript etc• Establishing reputation → reducing privacy

Disclosing Information

• Public record• Contains information about an incident or

action reported for the purpose of informing the public

• E.g. ▫ Birth certificates, death certificates,

criminal records, police report▫ Census Record▫ Internal Revenue (Taxation)

Disclosing Information• Public information

▫ Information you have provided to an organization that has the right to share it with other organization

▫ E.g. Listing in phone directory Rewards, Loyalty Programs Digital Video Recorder Automobile Black Box Implanted Chips Spyware, Cookies

Disclosing Information

• Personal information▫ undisclosed information, will remain personal

information as long as you never disclose to a party that has the right to share with others

▫ E.g. Your religion, your mobile number• Types of disclosures

▫ Voluntary (e.g. form filling)▫ Involuntary (e.g. CCTV)▫ Statutory (e.g. obtaining license, loan)

Data Mining

• Data mining▫ Searching for patterns or relationships in one or

more databases▫ Way to generate new information

• Secondary use: information collected for one purpose used for another purpose

• Information about customers is a valuable commodity

Ownership of Transaction Information• Who controls transaction information?

▫ Buyer?▫ Seller?▫ Both?

• Opt-in: consumer must explicitly give permission for the organization to share info

• Opt-out: consumer must explicitly forbid an organization from sharing info

Identity Theft

• Identity theft: misuse of another person’s identity to take actions permitted to the owner

• Credit card fraud #1 type of identity theft▫ Ease of opening accounts contributes to problem▫ 10 million victims in 2004 alone

Identity Theft

• Not necessary the result of IT, information can also be obtained through low-tech method : dumpster diving, shoulder surfing

• Example of high-tech method : use of skimmer/wedges at ATM, credit card machines, phishing

Encryption

• The process of transforming a message in order to conceal its meaning

• A valuable tool for maintaining privacy• Information can be deemed worthless unless it

can be decoded

Symmetric Encryption

• Single key used to encrypt and decrypt a message

• Both sender and receiver must have the key• Problem: How does sender get key to receiver?• If bad guy gets key, security is broken

Public Key Encryption

• An example of asymmetric encryption• Each person has two keys: public and private• To send R a message, encrypt it with R’s

public key• R decrypts message with R’s private key• No need to communicate keys• Strong encryption: virtually impossible to

figure out private key.

Try this

• Should parents implant microchips in their children? Why?

Try this

• Video surveillance is used widely at public places. Do you agree with this approach of ‘maintaining public safety’? What is the advantages and disadvantages.

Try this

• A CCTV is installed at a house to monitor the maid who is employed to do the housekeeping and babysitting job. Is this ethical? Which ethical theory do you plan to use in supporting your argument. Supposed you find that this is unethical, what can you do to ‘soften the blow’?

Questions?