| Home | |
| Publications | |
| Courses | |
| CV | |
| Bio | |
| Contact info |
|
IMPACTS OF TECHNOLOGY: Information Technology and Privacy
(E38.1034001SP02) Department of Culture and Communication Instructor: Helen Nissenbaum 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, doctorıs 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? The course divides into roughly two parts. In the first, we study a varied tradition of work in the humanities and social sciences that looks at the social, political and moral dimensions of technology generally - the rich and sometimes troubling relationship of humanity to technology. We will ask whether technology is a neutral force and what this question even means. We will ask whether and to what extent technology is determined by internal forces of science and engineering or broader social, moral and political forces. In the second part of the course, we turn attention to information and communications technology, carrying with us themes and principles learned in the first part. Our central focus, here, is both on the idea that values may be "embodied" in computer and information systems and what this means for those of us who are committed to a set of moral and political values. The course, throughout, combines attention to theory as well as application. Students will be expected to gain competency in theory as well as familiarity with key cases. They will be given opportunity to demonstrate this competency in classroom discussion and written assignments. We will give particular attention to the cases of the Internet and World Wide Web. Readings
Course requirements and grading
Students are expected to attend all classes and complete assigned readings prior to class meetings. Performance in class will be assessed according to three criteria and grades assigned accordingly: participation, examinations, and essays. To pass the class, students MUST attain passing grades on each of these criteria, but grades will be assigned on the basis of the following: 30% Participation (Attendance and classroom and online participation)
Class Schedule (subject to change) January 22: Introduction to the course January 24: Recent Technological Challenges
Short paper due today
Readings:
January 29: 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: Rosen
Feb. 7: Biometrics 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: Stikeman
Feb. 7, 12: 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: Records, Computers, and the Rights of Citizens
Feb. 14, 19: Technology and Society How can we understand the social implications of technology, generally. What can we say about the complex relationships among people, technology, societies, and values. We read about some of the central views on this matter, beginning with the question: what is technology, anyhow? Readings: Ellul
Feb. 21: Medical and Genetic Privacy Good healthcare depends on a vast body of knowledge, including the knowledge physicians and other caregivers have of 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 should there be restraints on what information is gathered and how it is used? Should genetic information be treated in unique ways? Readings: Annas
Feb. 26: Getting to Know You, Personally With information, we can learn not only about bodies but about minds, about personalities. Is this sinister, or just a slightly enhanced version of "getting to know you"? Readings: Regan
Feb. 28: 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 March 5: Catch-up and Review March 7: Midterm Mar. 12,14: Break Mar.19, 21: Philosophical Analysis What is privacy and why do we value it? These are the basic questions philosophers have asked. The questions are important because they provide reasons or justifications for heartfelt opinions on controversial issues. We will see, however, why theorists and activists alike have found privacy a challenging notion to grasp and defend. What interests and values does privacy challenge and how do we settle important tradeoffs? Readings: Reiman
March 26: Nostalgia: Is privacy really on the wane? 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: Bennett
April 2: In the workplace Do our bosses have a right to monitor us? There is an increasing sense that we give up privacy when we cross the threshold of our places of work. Readings: Rule April 4, 9: The Law U.S. law has grappled with both conceptual and normative privacy issues. Pulled in opposite directions by those, on the one hand, who see privacy as a distinctive value and on the other, by those who see it as a hodge-podge of more fundamental values, the law reveals complexity and confusion in its commitment to privacy. We examine various sources of legal protection for privacy, and will consider some of both the skeptical and committed positions. Readings: Constitution of the United States of America
Apr. 11, 16: The Skeptics Skeptical views on privacy are maintained on a variety of grounds: people don't care about privacy; privacy conflicts with other more important interests and liberties; and privacy is a negative social value. We will critically evaluate some of these arguments. Readings: Gotlieb
Apr. 18, 23: Technology as Protector of Privacy Information technology - databases, biometrics, genetics, surveillance cameras - is usually understood as posing threats to privacy. But, here, we consider ways in which information technology can serve to protect privacy. Readings: Levy
April 25: Guest speaker April 30: Guest speaker May 2: Catch-up and Review
|
