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
Home > Research Resources > Computing and Privacy > Information as a Commodity
HOME | IN
THE NEWS | RESEARCH
RESOURCES
TEACHING RESOURCES | STUDENT
RESOURCES | LINKS
The Research Center on Computing & Society
at Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent Street | New Haven, CT 06515
Director: (203) 392-6790 | e-mail: webmaster@computerethics.org
© 2000 – 2007 – Research Center on Computing & Society