QAs

Strategies for Answering Discussion and Essay Questions

Chapter 5

V: Strategies for selected Discussion and Essay Questions in Chapter 5 (see pages 169-

170 in the textbook)

A. Strategies for Selected Discussion Questions in Chapter 5

2. As a test case, connect to the search engine Google.com and then type in your name in

Google’s entry box. How many “hits” were returned under your name? Assuming that one or

more hits were returned, was any of the information that you were able to retrieve about

yourself information that you personally had authorized to be on the Web. Were you surprised

that any of the information about you identified on Google was so easily accessible to the

general public? Should that kind of personal information be treated as “public information”?

What recourse should you have, if you wish to get that information about you removed from

the Internet.

3. Striking the “appropriate” balance in this case has not been easy. Generally, in the US,

privacy laws have tended to favor the interests of businesses and organizations in the

commercial sector rather than individuals. In Europe, on the other hand, privacy policies and

data-protection schemes have been friendlier to individuals. Judith DeCew has argued that we

should presume in favor of individual privacy and then let people negotiate their personal

information in ways that they choose.

Further complicating the process of trying to balance the interests of personal privacy and

information access has been recent concerns about national security. This has been especially

apparent in period following the 9/11 attack.

B. Strategies for Selected Essay Questions in Chapter 5

1. In the early days of computing, the main concern about privacy invasion tended to be

centered around issues associated with fears involving governments snooping on their private

citizens. This was especially the case in the 1960s, when the U.S. government considered the

feasibility of constructing a huge, national database that would contain information about

every citizen. Fears about this proposal were then allayed when it was determined that such a

database would not be constructed at that time. In the 1970s through the 1990s, fears

regarding privacy violations of individuals shifted away from concerns about the federal

government to worries about businesses and organizations in the commercial sector that

collect and exchange personal information about individuals. Following September 11, 2001,

however, privacy concerns have once again shifted – this time, moving away from concerns

about privacy invasions in the commercial sector to privacy concerns about the new roles that

the federal government plays in gathering personal information. The USA Patriot Act, for

example, has concerned many civil libertarians who fear that personal privacy has been

significantly eroded and that it may never again be fully restored.

3. In the days immediately following 9/11, there were some signs that people would be

willing to trade-off bits of their privacy in return for greater security. Indeed, many Americans

still seem willing to do this. However, there have also been attempts by privacy advocates to

“reclaim” some of the individual privacy rights that appear to have been undermined by

controversial legislation such as the Total Information Awareness Act. For example, under

certain provisions of this act, it would be permissible for airlines to conduct a background

check on one’s credit history before determining whether that individual is considered a

security risk. (In other words, an association is made between one’s credit record and that

person’s likelihood of being a terrorist; opponents of this legislation have argued that it

unfairly biases poorer individuals.)

In some sense, privacy interests have already been reassessed and recalibrated in the post-

September 11 world. Yet, many American still claim to value their privacy. One way to

proceed with respect to privacy expectations in the current period is for individuals to concede

that they must be willing to give away more pieces of their privacy to the federal government

for purposes of national security, but that they should be able to expect to retain their privacy

in cases of commercial transactions. One way of doing this is to think of privacy not so much

in all-or-nothing terms but rather how individual privacy can be protected in various sectors –

i.e. sectors involving medical privacy, financial privacy, employee privacy, and so forth.

Personal privacy in most of these sectors could still be protected from commercial interests,

even if the federal government has greater access to our personal information.