Caveats: NONE
What a nice thing to ponder for the summer especially when you consider
the level of privacy schools allow to students. The primary difference
with the small town is that because privacy was not necessarily a
choice, a variety of social norms evolved around how the "private"
information was used and these norms were enforced by the community. For
example, the lady at Dunkin Donuts knows my name and that I purchase two
coffees every morning, but that is all. If she were to begin asking
questions about me, my marital status, book preferences, etc. this would
likely get back to me in a small town or it would be noted by others and
she would be treated as a gossip which have special handling rules in
small towns.
The difficulty today is that social norms are insufficient to regulate
privacy on the internet. They can in specific communities (e.g. getting
banned from a message board) but that is a very imperfect system. This
is compounded by the fact that anonymity is often believed to be
security when it is not. Finally, we tend to believe what we want to
when we are told our information is "protected" without really examining
the details or planning for failure. So, while we may not mind that a
lot of previously "private" information is available about us (e.g. my
Amazon wish list) we also tend to be pretty unconscious about the risks.
And that is just with the information we make available about ourselves.
Corporations in particular collect information on us to serve us
better/market to us better. This is not inherently a bad thing. I like
that Netflix recommends movies to me but I only want to provide them
with very specific information that serves me and I am very careful not
give them information that could only serve them (e.g. my phone number
to Radio Shack). I would not want to lose the ability to regulate that
commercial interaction.
In one way the small town analogy is a good one. We identify different
entities and assign them a risk/trust level. I would tell the gossip
one thing, the trusted friend another. I would close my blinds for
certain activities and not for others. But right now, the only
community enforcement we have is to opt out of the community. I don't
think it is losing battle, I just think that the focus is too often on
the opt-out and not enough on clarifying the norms and finding ways of
enforcing them. =20
And for those of us who like a little self reflection, consider Cory
Doctorow's, "Little Brother" for your summer reading list and the way we
look at student's privacy:
http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/
The premise is, in part, how we monitor students in school, what that
accomplishes, and how it would work if that level of surveillance was
applied to the entire country.
_J
___________________________________
Jason Johnson - Program Director
Web Services Branch - Walter Reed Army Medical Center Ingenium (ISO
9001:2000 certified)
Office: 202-782-1047
Cell: 202-262-0516
jason.johnson@ingenium.net
jason.p.johnson2@us.army.mil=20
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED=20
Caveats: NONE
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