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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 Versus Public Distaste
Put this last point into a current context.
Suppose that some company institutes an information service that tightens some aspect of society, but people do not like it. Or suppose some company introduces a product that exposes – makes more visible to more people – personal information in a way that people will not like (e.g., the Lotus Marketplace: Households product). Unless such actions violate some specific law, such activities are a matter of management taste and concern for society when considering new information products.
Does this country want an oversight function that reviews such things? And perhaps could force them to stop? Or would just publicize them? Probably not, but there are forces that can bring public pressure or publicize (e.g., consumer action groups, consumer advocates within government). In the Lotus case, the electronic mail networks of the country played a major role in organizing opposition.
But to what extent can business or government be compelled to cease-and-desist just because people dislike something? Government will only respond to Congressional action. Business will often respond to consumer resistance, but if a vendor sells only to other businesses and not to individuals, individual and collective consumer resistance may have little effect.
Remember that the private sector is a stakeholder in the equity of privacy. Because of the pervasiveness of the privacy issue and of information usage, would there be unfairness to subject the private sector to generally uncontrolled public pressures? In a country of 250 million people there will always be a vocal group that does not like something, or such a group can easily be whipped together by a few organizers.
Also keep in mind that this country has to exist in an international world. Things that a U.S. population might not like could indeed be important to our relationship with other countries.
Go to: 15. The Future for Privacy
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