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Control and Benefit Are Morally Owed to the Source
Richard A. Wright
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Reframing the Issues
- 3. The “High Cost to Industry” Defense
- 3.1 Raw Materials as a Cost of Doing Business
- 3.2 The Cost of Correcting Past Inequities as a Cost of Doing Business
- 3.3 Originator Control of Materials as a Feature of Doing Business
- 4. The “Private” is “Public” Defense
- 4.1 Private Information and “Voluntary” Release
- 4.2 Private Information in the “Public” Domain
- 4.3 Autonomy as the Basis for Understanding Privacy
- 5. Toward a Resolution
- 6. Concluding Thoughts
By expanding upon Ware’s comments, I hope that I have given more focus to key elements of the privacy problem. This is not to disagree in general with Ware, but only to push his beginning in new directions.
Most important, Ware is to be commended for his tireless efforts (beginning in the 1970’s) to warn us that as individuals, regardless of our professions, we must pay more attention to these matters. The latent risks are enormous. As technology continues to develop, the potential for expansion is only limited by the imagination. Abridgment of privacy is not a trivial matter, and we would do well to heed Ware’s warnings.
Information is not benign. As more becomes available, its potential negative impact increases. Already, for example, we are seeing employers attempt to gain medical information which is irrelevant to the employee’s work, only to reduce payouts from the company health insurance policy. Already we see discrimination on the basis of information, for example sexual preference or religious beliefs. Already we see discrimination based on projections and statistical interpretations of personal financial data. The list could go on and on.
How far we want to go is, as Ware says, up to us. But each of us has the responsibility, as autonomous moral agents, to make intelligent, well informed decisions. Anything less not only plays into the hands of those who misuse personal information, but in the end will mean that George Orwell was right, just a few years off.
University of Oklahoma, Health Sciences Center
Go to: Comments on Willis Ware’s “Contemporary Privacy Issues” – Becker
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