Class 46: Privacy

Held Tuesday, April 25, 2000

Overview

Today Cathy leads us through considerations of privacy in the computer age.

Question 46 for discussion today: Where do you stand on the continuum from total privacy to total efficiency? Do you think that either privacy or efficiency is more important, or that a balance can be achieved between the two? How do computers affect the balance between individual rights and organizational responsibilities? Are privacy and protection issues complementary or at odds?

Question 47 for discussion Wednesday: To be determiend

Notes

• Liz asked about Van Eck radiation monitoring. Here are some resources that I've found. I've noted that many of the linked pages contain even more grammatical errors than my rough outlines, even those presented as professional reports.
  • http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/tempest.html (you'll need to scroll down through the insider's info to get the basic info on what TEMPEST is.
  • http://www.shmoo.com/tempest/
• Those of you looking into study abroad might be interested in an article on online resources at http://chronicle.com/free/2000/04/2000042501t.htm.
• For tomorrow, read Chapter 9 of Forester and Morrison. Sam should have a question ready real soon now.

Contents

• Cathy's Overview

Summary

Cathy's Overview

• Overview of chapter, any questions or issues class wants to bring up
• The two sides of this issue can be represented by two competing dystopias
  • "Big Brother" -- government/big business will come not only to always watch us and record and categorize everything we are and everything we're doing, but will act on our actions, regulating all of our behaviors. (What are signs that this is happening?)
  • "Isolationism/Libertarianism" -- in the interest of total privacy, we will no longer use computers, credit cards, etc., we will return to a 19th century way of doing things so that no one can know who we are or what we're doing. (What are signs that this is happening?)
• Should people's personal information be included in databases at all?
  • If so, who should have access and for what purposes?
• If we decided that it's important (or inevitable) that information about us is 'out there,' is making sure that it's correct really the most important thing?
• Do you think that legislating data privacy principles like those outlined in the OECD's "Guidelines on the Protection and Privacy of Transborder Flows of Personal Data" (p. 145-146) is useful and beneficial? In what ways?
• Consider the questions in F&M's final paragraph on page 161, how might we answer these? Are there other pertinent issues Famp;&M didn't raise?