Privacy given away

1. Privacy given away We accept lost of privacy in exchange for efficiency, convenience and small price discounts. No breakthrough, only a steady advance on tech. fronts resulting in a tipping point. Enabling technologies: Fingerprints and footprints - how we have lost privacy: Metadata in images, GPS, RFID, magnetic dots, electronic keycards, de-identified data not so (gender, zip and DOB for 87% of pop.) Social changes – why we lost our privacy: Tech. did not cause it. We choose the benefits outweigh the costs (saving time & money). Sites know who you are via login, cookies, IP address. Some enjoy the public exposure. Some cannot afford to avoid the loss of privacy. What does privacy mean in the digital world? ITEC 102

2. Somebody is watching Difference between “public” and “readily accessible” Little brotherism – you and your neighbors snooping the internet data Maps with underlying data upon enlarging identify specifics Once only professionals could access private information Mashups Big brothers - governments (NSA, TSA, IRS, etc.) , national ids, reverse cell phone corporations (Acxion, Choicepoint, ATT, Visa, etc.) Privacy Act of 1974 – guidelines for when and how gov. can collect citizen data - but paths around it Culture changes –credit card use, email use, cell phone use, web use Information without context – the fingerprints/footprints left ITEC 102

3. Attempts to Control Privacy The right of individual privacy vs. freedom of speech Surveillance technologies and the technologies to spread information developed faster than the laws governing them Privacy, deviations, and social progress 1973 Fair Information Practice Principles – openness, disclosure, secondary use, correction, security Many privacy (medical, video, credit, HIPPA, etc.) acts since FIPP resulting in piecemeal and inconsistent coverage No locking down of bits any more - doing so is both impossible and undesirable for most of us ITEC 102

4. “Transparency is not about eliminating privacy. It’s about giving us the power to hold accountable those who would violate it. Privacy implies serenity at home and the right to be let alone. It may be irksome how much other people know about me, but I have no right to police their minds. On the other hand I care very deeply about what others do to me and to those I love, We all have a right to some place where we can feel safe.” The Transparent Society, David Brin. How much is the lack of privacy today like the way human society was with kinship groups and small settlements, where secrets were hard to keep and anonyminity rare? ITEC 102