IMPACTS OF TECHNOLOGY: Information Technology and Privacy
Professor: Helen Nissenbaum
Department of Culture and Communication 
Fall '02 (E38.1034001SP02)
The course examines social impacts of technology through the case of information technologies and their impacts on privacy. Few social values have been as dramatically affected as privacy by developments in the huge array of technologies of information, from photography to video, from databases to biometrics, from wire-taps to polygraphs. Social commentary attending these developments have been equally diverse, predicting the death of privacy, proclaiming its insignificance, and suggesting that technology itself has brought privacy into existence as an inchoate set of disparate values and interests. We will study some of these technologies and their impacts. We will note the people, institutions, and interests that are affected. And we will learn how to think about some of the challenges and evaluate them from the perspective of social, ethical, and political values.
The subject of technology and privacy can be approached from many different vantage points. In the course, we adopt a philosophical perspective. This means that we seek to appreciate the effects of technology on privacy through an understanding of the meaning and value of privacy. The course is structured around several issues:
- The technology. We will study a variety of technologies that have raised questions and protest, including photography, video-recording, biometrics, computer databases, computer and online monitoring, information processing techniques, and polygraphs. We also will examine some of the proposed technical solutions to privacy threats.
- The contexts. We study some of the contexts in which these various technologies operate, especially those that have aroused public controversy, such as the workplace, marketplace, home, World Wide Web, doctor¹s office, public squares, mind, body, and on the road.
- The law. We study the extent and limits of privacy protection provided through law.
- The value of privacy. We study the meaning and value of privacy through philosophical analysis and ethical, political and legal theory.
- Privacy in conflict. Claims have been made about several important values that appear to conflict with privacy, including free speech, profit, efficiency, security, and accountability. How do we choose? Can we make sensible tradeoffs?
- Technology and values. Should we blame technology for the loss of privacy? Or, is technology merely the tool that assists legitimate social forces?
READINGS
- Web Resources. Many readings have been made available through the Course homepage either via External
Links
or Course Documents. Those available online are marked
CD.
- Course
Reader: All other readings (except if noted otherwise) can be found in
the
Course Reader. Available from: MacDougal Copy Center, 127 MacDougal
Street
(betw. W3 & W4). Call before going:
212-460-8591
- Weston,
A, A Rulebook for Arguments
(Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company)
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING POLICY
Students are expected to attend all classes and
complete assigned readings prior to class meetings. Grades for the course will
be assessed according to three criteria: in-class participation, examinations,
and short essays as follows.
30% Participation (Attendance, classroom, and online participation)
40% Examinations (Midterm and Final)
30% Essays (Two short essays)
To pass the class, students muse attain passing grades in all three.
COURSE HOMEPAGE
The homepage will serve as the hub of the class.
The following important elements will be found there: syllabus, which will be
updated as we go along; discussion group where students can post questions,
ideas, and observations; useful external links; essay questions; readings.
Students should check frequently.
SCHEDULE
September 4: Introduction to the course
September 9: Overview of Impacts of Technology on Privacy
For at least a century, technological innovations that have stirred cries of “privacy invasion”. We review some of the significant cases, focusing on some current examples.
Readings:
Penenberg, Adam L. “The Surveillance
Society.” Wired. (December 2001).
157-161.
Greenhouse, Linda “Justices Say Warrant is Required In High-Tech Searches,” The New York Times, June 12, A.1
Marx, Gary “Technology and Gender: Thomas I.
Voire and the Case of the Peeping Tom,” Sociological
Quarterly, (forthcoming). CD
Barlow, John P. “Private Life in Cyberspace.” Computers, Ethics, and Social
Values. Eds. D. Johnson and H. Nissenbaum. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall,
1995). 310-314.
Various readings from popular media about
surveillance on the Roads
September 11: Anonymity
Being anonymous is, strictly speaking, to be
unnamed. Anonymity is sometimes considered an important aspect of privacy but
it can also be dangerous. Anonymity may be increasingly difficult to achieve
in
an information age.
Readings:
Froomkin, A. Michael. “Legal Issues in Anonymity and Pseudonymity.” The Information Society. (Volume 15, Number 2: April-June 1999).
113-127.
Herz, J. C. “Cross-dressing in Cyberspace.” Surfing
on the Internet. (New York: Little, Brown, and Company,
1995).
September 16: No Class
September 18: Video Surveillance
Special Event: Tour Washington Square and
environs with Bill Brown
Video surveillance is seen as the answer to
much
insecurity, especially in the wake of terror and crime. The United Kingdom has
embraced this technology with great enthusiasm and, it appears, little public
objection. We also read the most famous modern paper written about the right
to
privacy, which all began with video’s precursor – photography.
Readings:
Bentham, J.. The
Panopticon Writings. Edited by Miran Bozovic (London: Verso, 1995)
31-34
Rosen, Jeffrey. “A Watchful State.” The New York Times Magazine, October 7,
2001. 38-43, 85,92,93.
Short paper due today
Short Paper (approx. 2-pages): Select one example from Sept. 9 readings of a technological device or system
whose use has raised privacy concerns, for example, thermal imaging, EZ Pass,
cell phone identification numbers, etc. Describe how the technology works, how
it is or can be used, and whether you think it is problematic. Give reasons.
You may wish to do some further reading, but need not. Try the EPIC.org
website
and search on topic of interest.
September 23,25: Biometrics, Identification,
and Authentication
In an impersonal world, how can we know enough
about the people around us, who we may need to depend on and trust? Biometric
technologies not only identify, they also authenticate identity. Is this a
good
thing?
Readings:
Clarke, Roger A. “Human Identification in
Information Systems: Management Challenges and Public Policy Issues”, Information Technology & People 7,
4
(December 1994) 6-37
http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/HumanID.html
Agre, Philip “Your face is Not a Bar Code:
Arguments Against Automatic Face Recognition in Public Places”
http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/bar-code.html
Ashborn,
Julian (1999) “The Biometric White Paper.”
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/avanti/whitepaper.htm
September 30, October 2: Databases
When computers came to serve not only as
calculators but as information processors, it was not long before their powers
to store, organize, manipulate and analyze information about people were
exploited. In many cases, the ends were good. But, soon, the worries of “big
brother” were publicly aired, along with a sense that something needed to be
done to control their proliferation and growth.
Readings:
Summary and Recommendations from Records, Computers, and the Rights of
Citizens. Report of the Secretary’s
Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems. U. S. Department of Health, Education
&
Welfare. (Copyright by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1973).
Clarke, Roger A. “Information Technology and Dataveillance.” Computerization
and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices. Ed. Charles Dunlop and Rob Kling. (New York: Academic Press, 1991). 496-522.
Froomkin, A. Michael, “The Death of Privacy?”
Stanford Law Review, Vol 52, 1461-1543 http://personal.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/articles/privacy-deathof.pdf (Read only
1461-1476)
Gandy, O. “Exploring Identity and
Identification” in Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy, vol
14, no. 2. 2000 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/ogandy/Identity.pdf
Tavani, Herman T. “Informational Privacy, Data
Mining and the Internet.” Ethics and
Information Technology. (Volume 1, Number 2: 1999).
137-145.
Westin, Alan and Michael Baker, (1972) Databanks in a Free Society: Computers,
Record-Keeping and Privacy. (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book
Co.) 3-5,15-20
CSTB: “Privacy Related Legislation”
Unpublished
report.
Privacy Basics: OECD
Guidelines
European Commission Press Release, July 25,
1995. “Council Definitively Adopts Directive on Protection of Personal
Data.”
October 7: Medical and Genetic Privacy
Good healthcare depends on a vast body of
knowledge, including the knowledge physicians and other caregivers have about
individual patients. This information is stored and used. It is of great value
to the patients themselves and to society at large – public health and
research. But many people feel that information about their health is
sensitive
and personal and should not be widely shared. Are they right? Should there be
restraints on what information is gathered and how it is used? Should genetic
information be treated in unique ways?
Goldman, Janlori. “Protecting Privacy to Improve Health Care.” Health care.
(November/December 1998.) 47-60.
Read the latest about Federal Rules applying to
medical records on Health Privacy Project Website:
http://www.healthprivacy.org/
Murray, Thomas H. “Genetic Exceptionalism and ‘Future Diaries’: Is Genetic
Information Different from Other Medical Information?” Genetic Secrets: Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality in the Genetic
Era. Ed. Mark A. Rothstein. (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1997). 60-73.
October 9: Getting to Know You, Personally
Information technology can track not only the status of health, but state of mind, personality and habit. Is this sinister
or
simply a more effective way of “getting to know you”?
Readings:
Regan, Priscilla. “Psychological Privacy:
Evaluating our Thoughts.” Legislating
Privacy. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995). Chapter
6
(skim)
Westin, Alan F. Privacy and Freedom. (New York: Atheneum, 1967). 3-7,
67-168.
DeCew, Judith. In Pursuit of Privacy. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997).
125-144.
October 14: Communications
We sometimes take for granted the privacy of
our
communications. We can whisper, pass notes, even send things in the mail, and
expect them to remain secret. What can we expect, hope, or demand of our new
communications technologies, from telephones to landlines to cell phones to
email?
Readings:
Regan, Priscilla. “Communication Privacy:
Transmitting Our Message.” Legislating
Privacy. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995). Chapter
3
Carnivore and Magic Lantern: Read about them in
EPIC.org
October
16: The Internet
The online world offers protection from much of
the scrutiny of physical interaction – others can’t see or hear us. They may
not know us. Yet online transaction has become increasingly a source of
betrayal of our habits and origins. How so? And what should we do about
it?
Readings:
Committee on the Internet in the Evolving
Information Infrastructure, (2001) The
Internet’s Coming of Age, Report of the Computer Science and
Telecommunications Board. Chapter 1, 1-5
Bennett, Colin J. “Cookies, Web Bugs, Webcams,
and Cue Cats: Patterns of Surveillance on the World Wide Web.” Ethics and Information Technology.
(Volume 3, Number 3: 2001) 197-210.
Online profiling (See
EPIC)
Smith, Marica, “Internet Privacy: An Analysis
of
Technology and Policy Issues” Report of the Congressional Research Service,
December 2000
