with
Brian Carroll

for
JoMC 050
Wednesday, 11 June 2003

Set-up

• National debate on privacy pre- and post-September 11: major changes
• Surveillance in the material world v. surveillance in the virtual world
  • Physical surveillance v. databases of personally identifiable information
• Who is concerned? Survey says ... and Americans say ...      BUT
  
  Name your favorite e-commerce site. Have you read the privacy policy?

Snapshot:
•CRM: $5 billion industry
•SAS: $3.3 billion sales (2002) datamining, data warehousing
•50 Internet privacy bills in Congress

What is it? Definitions
       Brandeis and Warren, Harvard Law Review, v. 4 (1890)
       The “right to be left alone” . . . and many, many others
       Tension and lag: technology v. privacy concerns

What's at stake?

“If I could read your mind as a store, then I could sell you anything. I could manipulate you.” –Paul Hagen, Forrester Research (N&O, 7/16/02)

1st Q 2001: Eli Lilly inadvertently sends out over the Internet the email addresses of Prozac users. Oops.

How did we get here?
       Still photographs >> snapshots (Civil War era >> Warren's family in the paper)
       Warranties, surveys, sweepstakes, applications >> Cookies, card swipes, clickstreams and shopping carts

   The Point:
      Consent, cooperation no longer necessary, or even desirable
      Law always lags behind technology, and by a lot
      It’s not the snapshots; it’s the portrait

Some Issues:

1. Corner grocer joins growing biometric boom
invasive, predictive? >> Gattaca

2. Chip implants 'become part of you'
unintended consequences v. "smartness"

3. Sheriffs warn about rash of identity theft
databases: Equifax, USPS, ATMs and you

4. Databases as assets in bankruptcy court


   Resources:
EPIC.org, Electronic Privacy Information Center
Privacy.Org
Privacy International
The Privacy Place links page
Pew Internet & American Life Project

got questions? email me

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