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Ethics 5.1-5.

3 Week 1 Reading notes

White pages and Zillow can acquire information about individuals that should be private. (Facebook)

Conflicting ideas are: do we have a right to privacy? What about our right to know enough about another person for protection? What is privacy?

Discussions of privacy revolve around the notion of Access, meaning either physical proximity to another individual, or knowledge about that person.

Restricting zone of inaccessibility for privacy, locking doors. Where do we draw the line between what is public and what is private? Privacy can cause unethical business dealings and has its flaw Whose interests matter more in certain circumstances? (politician scandals) Privacy is a social arrangement that allows individuals to have some level of control over who is able to gain access to their physical selves and their personal information.

Harms of privacy o o Some people use privacy to plan immoral criminal acts Makes families unhappier by making it all for themselves, that families have to solve their own problems. o Privacy is respected among families and that causes acts such as abuse and violence to go undetected. o Privacy may be a curse for the elderly or those who are unable to associate normally with people.

Benefits of Privacy o Privacy is needed for a person for a person to grow to maturity

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Privacy is therefore the representation of a persons true freedom. Privacy lets us be ourselves. (camera paradox) Privacy lets us remove our public persona. (if not can damage our psychological health) Privacy can foster intellectual activities. It allows us to work on ourselves and just think about anything and everything.

Some say that Privacy is the only way that we can develop relationships (moral capital) if people know everybody, there would be no relationships

Summary Allowing people privacy has many therapeutic effects, such as fully recognizing them as adults. Privacy helps people develop their persona, shut off the world, and create relationships. It is also very harmful. It provides ways to cover illegal activities, dysfunctional relationships may also not be able to ask for help Weighing these costs and benefits, we conclude granting privacy is better than denying people the total lack of it. This leads us to the next question

Is Privacy a Natural Right? o o Privacy rights evolved from property rights a mans home is his castle European origins nobody can enter unless there is probable cause of criminal activity. o o o o Quartering Act: just regular inns, taverns, unknown areas Coercive Act: this act causes soldiers to be able to go into private homes Third Amendment to the United States solves this. Spain people refer to Houses by their names

Warren and Brandeis say that people in fact do have a right to Privacy.

They right a paper The Right to Privacy saying that because of new economic, political, and social changes that have taken place, there needs to be a recognition for new kids of legal rights.

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Focused on newspapers There are no laws protecting against malicious but true stories. Laws addressing property rights fall short because It is assumed that people have power to control over the ways in which information about themselves is revealed

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French already recognizes the right to be left alone Decades later, the right to privacy is recognized in court.

Thomson: believes that every privacy right is a violation of another right o Judith Thomson believes that it is ironic that nobody knows what exactly the right to privacy actually entails. o There are problems to saying that privacy is the right to be alone, as Brandeis and Warren does. o o o Too narrow (x ray) The right to be alone is also too broad. Whenever the right of privacy is violated Thomson argues, there is a separate right that is violated o If this is the case there is no need to define privacy presisely or to decide whether to draw the line between violation or privacy as acceptable or unaccetbale.

Autonomous Moral Agents Need Some Privacy o o Not alone in disputing that privacy is a natural right. Many believe that privacy stems from the principal that each person is worthy of respect

In this way they are able to develop into healthy adults able to function in society.

Jeffrey Reiman supports this o o He points out areas where privacy is necessary Does not say that privacy is a natural right

Conclusion o o o Privacy is a prudent right. Philosophers argue whether there is a natural right to privacy. However, they all agree there those who are rational will agree that there should be some privacy rights, because those rights benefit society.

Privacy and Trust o we have more rights to privacy than our ancestors did, even though we complain like a bitch. o o There was a greater emphasis on the community and less on the individual Physical homes, cars, television, and the computer space has created a system of separation. o o o o o Yet in our world there has to be some connection and trust so how do we do it? In the past, there was trust because there was no secrets. Yet now we must find a way to trust themwe rely on reputation We must get information out of people to establish reputation. We do this one way through an ordeala lie detector, a drug test, credentials.

Case Study: o Social contract: emphasizes the adoption or rules and rational people would agree to accept because they are in everyones mutual interests.

Information Disclosures:

o o

We live behind an electronic trail of our lives as we go throughout our day. A public record contains info about an incident or action reported to a government agency for the purpose of informing the public. (birth certificates, drivers license, criminal records.

Private organizations also hold public records of our accounts. (purchases we make from our accounts

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Surveys Social networking sites

Facebook Tags o A tag is a label identifying a person in a photo

Enhanced 911 Services o o Tracking 100 meters United States. Good and bad

Rewards or loyalty programs Body Scanners RFID Tags o RFIDs are not turned off when they exit the stores.

Implemented Chips o o Every dog has to have a chip implanted in them in Taiwan. Tracking chips in children?

OnStar o o sent a signal that disabled the gas pedal. They can listen in on conversations in ones car as well

Automobile black Boxes

Records data 5 seconds before the crash.

Medical Records o Records in a informational database on the web can loosen the grip on dissemination.

Digital Video recorders o Tibo

Cookies and Flash Cookies o o o o A file from the web placed in your computers hard drive 1. flash cookies can hold 25 times as much information as a browser cookie 2. Flash cookies cannot be stopped by a browsers control Popular websites do not mention that they use flash cookies (respawns)

Data Mining: 5.4 o Data mining is the process of searching through multiple databases and looking for patterns o Secondary use is when data is used for another purpose.

Collaborative filtering o Sing data of preferences from huge numbers of people in order to determine what is the possibility that a single person might enjoy the same thing. o Used mainly for online retailers and scans for complimentary products

Opt-in versus opt-out-policies o What rules should govern the sharing of information collection by organizations selling products or services? o o Opt-in requires customers to give explicit consent Opt-out requires customers to explicitly forbid.

Examples of Data Mining o o Credit reports Micro targetingwhich candidate the voter will likely favor

Organizations pushing the Boundaries o o o Marketplace households: Facebook beacons: Netflix prize:

Social Network Analysis: o o o Cell phone companies Police and parties Banks and credit card statements/ social networking. It could be a bad investment if they want to start a new business and yet they have no background in it.

Summary o o o o o There are issues with information technology Information is a valuable commodity Privacy is a balancing act between the desires of the individual and the needs of society The benefits of giving people SOME privacy exceeds the cost Philosophers disagree on whether the right of privacy is a natural right, but they do agree that there should be some privacy given to the individual. o There is a tension between privacy and trust.meaning we have to reveal our information to others o Companies frequently push what is acceptable in the modern age in order to ultimately increase profits.

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