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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
Let us now clarify the new aspects of privacy relative to what we knew privacy to be in 1970s.
One is certainly “use” as contrasted to “abuse”of personal data. Socially accepted uses of information about people certainly must be an explicit component of the privacy debate today, as well as protections against abuse. And the well being of society and the payoff to it must be considered along with the rights and privileges for the individual.
A second new aspect is the question of what protection should be afforded to collections of personal information that are aggregated into a database as a byproduct of conduct of business (e.g., the databases within point-of-sale systems, the financial information in retail store systems).
A third new aspect, created really by the existence of the private-sector personal-information industry, is control of access by third parties, especially access by the many enforcement agencies at federal, state and local levels – law enforcement, tax authorities, drug enforcement, welfare and social assistance programs. But there is also access by lawyers or other components of the judicial system – divorce lawyers, public prosecutors, availability to the discovery process of law suits. And always there is the issue of access by the press.
Who is to be allowed to access and use the databases of the personal-information industry? And what controls or penalties should there be to protect against abuse? Or against access by inappropriate people? Will broad privacy protections drive any underlying requirement for sound computer security in systems?
These points are epitomized in the databases behind all the point-of-sale records that abound in the retail trade. What about supermarket checkout records? How should they be used? Protected? Who may have access to them? And the records of drugstore chains, especially pharmacy records? What controls should be in place on them? And who may use them and for what purpose? Drug enforcement and abuse? Social workers? Insurance companies? Medical oversight boards?
Go to: 13. Context for New Privacy
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