Concept and History of Privacy
– The word privacy is derived from the Latin word privatus, meaning set apart from what is public.
– Privacy refers to secluding oneself or information from the public.
– Privacy is associated with personal and individual belongings.
– Privacy has been valued throughout history in various cultures.
– The right to privacy is recognized in many countries’ laws and constitutions.
– Ancient Greek philosophers discussed the distinction between public and private spheres.
– The Book of Sirach in Judaism values privacy as a basic necessity.
– Privacy law in the United States developed in the late 19th century.
Technology and Privacy
– Technological advancements have changed the way privacy is protected and violated.
– The printing press and the Internet have increased the sharing of information, leading to new privacy breaches.
– The 1890 article ‘The Right to Privacy’ by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis addressed the impact of printing technologies on privacy.
– George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ explores the negative effects of totalitarianism on privacy and censorship.
– Vance Packard’s book ‘The Naked Society’ and Alan Westin’s ‘Privacy and Freedom’ contributed to the discussion on privacy in the 1960s.
– Corporations and governments can employ various techniques to invade privacy.
– Invasion of privacy can be driven by profit or political reasons.
– Encryption and anonymity measures can be used to protect privacy.
– Privacy invasion can occur through surveillance, data collection, or monitoring.
– Unsolicited invasions of privacy by individuals, corporations, or governments are prohibited by privacy laws.
Privacy and Police/Government
– The conflict between police and citizens often involves the intrusion of digital privacy.
– Supreme Court cases such as United States v. Jones and Riley v. California have addressed digital privacy rights.
– The Fourth Amendment protects citizens’ reasonable expectation of privacy in transportation and digital instances.
– The use of GPS trackers or searching a citizen’s phone without a warrant has been deemed a violation of privacy.
– Carpenter v. United States is a recent case that highlights the conflict between law enforcement and citizens’ digital privacy.
– The FBI used cell phone records without a warrant to arrest Timothy Ivory Carpenter.
– The Supreme Court ruled that the warrantless search of cell phone records violated the Fourth Amendment.
– The Fourth Amendment protects reasonable expectations of privacy.
– Information sent to third parties still falls under data that can be included under reasonable expectations of privacy.
– Whistleblowers like Edward Snowden have revealed mass surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA).
Internet Privacy and Social Networking
– The Internet enables new forms of social interactions at faster speeds and larger scales.
– Privacy on the Internet is often conflated with security.
– Entities involved in the surveillance economy inculcate a security-focused conceptualization of privacy.
– The Internet can subvert the privacy expectations of users.
– Privacy advocacy groups argue for technological improvements to encryption and anonymity and legal regulations to restrict corporate and government power.
– Several online social network sites (OSNs) are among the top 10 most visited websites globally.
– Users underestimate risks of their information privacy on OSNs.
– Personal traits can be inferred based on digital footprints on social media.
– Social media privacy intrusions can affect employment.
– Candidates need to control online privacy settings and online reputations.
– Selfies are popular today, with millions of results on social media platforms.
– Modern surveillance poses a risk to privacy when posting selfies.
– Women generally have greater concerns over privacy when posting selfies.
– Users’ privacy concerns inversely predict their selfie behavior and activity.
– Invasion of privacy can lead to online harassment.
– Lack of content moderation can expose people to greater harassment.
– Revenge porn can lead to misogynist or homophobic harassment.
– Doxxing can lead to direct physical harm such as stalking.
– Online harassment is used as a justification to curtail freedom of speech and invade privacy.
Privacy and Location-Based Services, Advertising, and Metadata
– Mobile devices facilitate location tracking.
– Users’ location and preferences constitute personal information.
– Improper use of location data violates users’ privacy.
– A study showed that even coarse or blurred datasets provide little privacy protection.
– Methods to protect user privacy in location-based services have been proposed.
– Scandals regarding location privacy have occurred.
– AccuWeather sold locational data of users, even if they opted out.
– McDelivery App exposed home addresses of 2.2 million users.
– Large technology companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook have faced hearings and pressure due to privacy concerns.
– Google was found to have misled users and stored their location data regardless of their settings.
– Digital marketing makes up approximately half of global ad spending.
– Behavioral advertising is encouraged by digital ad brokers like Facebook and Google.
– Tracking data is sold to third parties as part of the mass surveillance industry.
– Privacy scandals, such as the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal, have raised concerns.
– Apple has implemented features to prohibit advertisers from tracking user data without consent.
– Online inquiries about individuals have expanded.
– Directly observed behavior can be processed to infer secondary information about an individual.
– Privacy laws in Australia distinguish between collecting message contents and metadata.
– Data re-identification is a concern related to metadata.
– Metadata can reveal personal information such as sexual orientation, political views, and intelligence.
– Many countries include privacy rights in their constitutions.
– Examples include Brazil, South Africa, and Korea.
– The Italian Constitution also defines the right to privacy.
– Court decisions have interpreted constitutions to protect privacy rights in countries without explicit mentions.
– Privacy laws exist in many countries outside of constitutional rights.
– Approaches to privacy can be divided into two categories: free market or consumer protection.
– The voluntary OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data reflect the free market approach.
– The principles in the guidelines are analyzed in relation to the GDPR in an article.
– In a consumer protection approach, it is claimed that individuals may not have the time or knowledge to make informed choices.
– Jensen and Potts showed that
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy
