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Willis H. Ware
1. Introduction
2. Historical Development
3. United States Posture
4. Source of the Problem
5. Privacy as a Public Policy Issue
6. Contemporary Privacy
6.1 Current Example
7. Public Policy Again
7.1 An Illustration – CNI
8. The Broadened Public Issue
9. Possible Approaches to Protection
10. Related Effects
11. Privacy as Social Equity
12. New Privacy Versus Old
13. Context for New Privacy
14. Privacy Versus Public Distaste
15. The Future for Privacy
16. References
Privacy is a complex issue; privacy is a vexing issue. Solutions to its protection are easy to imagine, hard to implement, and awkward to get into law. As a public policy issue, it concerns us all. Each of us is surrounded by the same record systems as anyone else in the country. We are all subject to the same consequences, to the same possible abuses, to the same annoyances, to the same sense of society’s tightening.
To each of us as professionals the issue is one demanding our responsible and ethical behavior. In its four decades, the computer industry has not spawned any national problems of the kind that the automobile industry allowed to happen with atmospheric pollution, or the power industry has with nuclear waste and acid rain, or the chemical and mining industries have with lake, river and stream pollution. But it takes constant alertness from all of us connected with any part of the information industry to assure that some problem will not arise. As professionals, we can and should be responsible monitors of what is happening, vocal, alert, cautious, attuned to the activity of our own companies, our own state governments, and the Federal government.
We have the knowledge that lets us be more insightful than most of the population. We should see the coming problems sooner; we can sound the alarm and take action sooner. We can exert a certain measure of ethical responsibility in behalf of those who are less informed.
Each of us is part of some industry, and the message is much the same as to each of us as a professional. Be alert; be informed about privacy issues and latent risks and developments. Be vocal and responsible in taking positions on privacy issues related to your technology and your industry. Keep up to date on events that will influence what your industry will or can do.
Resolution of the contemporary and future privacy concerns will take more than the collective will of society. True there are new forces coming into prominence, new technologies for widespread communication and quick organization of positions and groups – the facsimile machine and electronic mail among others. In the end, though, law is almost certainly essential; getting the attention of the political process is always hard but there is homework to be done first. Privacy as a social phenomenon, driven so hard by technology and the exploitation of information, must be understood and its intricacy structured. Until that can be done, we are likely to be taking potshots at problems and consequences that may not be the central problems in the big picture.
RAND Corporation
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