PRIVACY

Privacy (from Latin: privatus "separated from the rest, deprived of something, esp. office, participation in the government", from privo "to deprive") is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes.

Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or unidentified in the public realm. When something is private to a person, it usually means there is something within them that is considered inherently special or personally sensitive. The degree to which private information is exposed therefore depends on how the public will receive this information, which differs between places and over time.

Privacy is broader than security and includes the concepts of appropriate use and protection of information.


TYPES OF PRIVACY

1.) Physical

Physical privacy could be defined as preventing "intrusions into one's physical space or solitude" This would include such concerns as:

preventing intimate acts or one's body from being seen by others for the purpose of modesty; apart from being dressed this can be achieved by walls, fences, privacy screens, cathedral glass, partitions between urinals, by being far away from others, on a bed by a bed sheet or a blanket, when changing clothes by a towel, etc.; to what extent these measures also prevent acts being heard varies

* video, of aptly named graphic, or intimate, acts, behaviors or body parts
* preventing unwelcome searching of one's personal possessions
* preventing unauthorized access to one's home or vehicle
* medical privacy, the right to make fundamental medical decisions without

governmental coercion or third party review, most widely applied to questions of contraception

An example of the legal basis for the right to physical privacy would be the US Fourth Amendment, which guarantees "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures". Most countries have laws regarding trespassing and property rights also determine the right of physical privacy.

Physical privacy may be a matter of cultural sensitivity, personal dignity, or shyness. There may also be concerns about safety, if for example one has concerns about being the victim of crime or stalking.

2.) Informational

Data privacy refers to the evolving relationship between technology and the legal right to, or public expectation of privacy in the collection and sharing of data about one's self. Privacy concerns exist wherever uniquely identifiable data relating to a person or persons are collected and stored, in digital form or otherwise. In some cases these concerns refer to how data is collected, stored, and associated. In other cases the issue is who is given access to information. Other issues include whether an individual has any ownership rights to data about them, and/or the right to view, verify, and challenge that information.

Various types of personal information often come under privacy concerns. For various reasons, individuals may not wish for personal information such as their religion, sexual orientation, political affiliations, or personal activities to be revealed. This may be to avoid discrimination, personal embarrassment, or damage to one's professional reputation.

Financial privacy, in which information about a person's financial transactions is guarded, is important for the avoidance of fraud or identity theft. Information about a person's purchases can also reveal a great deal about that person's history, such as places they have visited, whom they have had contact with, products they use, their activities and habits, or medications they have used.

Internet privacy is the ability to control what information one reveals about oneself over the Internet, and to control who can access that information. These concerns include whether email can be stored or read by third parties without consent, or whether third parties can track the web sites someone has visited. Another concern is whether web sites which are visited collect, store, and possibly share personally identifiable information about users. Tools used to protect privacy on the internet include encryption tools and anonymizing services like I2P and Tor.

Medical privacy allows a person to keep their medical records from being revealed to others. This may be because they have concern that it might affect their insurance coverage or employment. Or it may be because they would not wish for others to know about medical or psychological conditions or treatment which would be embarrassing. Revealing medical data could also reveal other details about one's personal life (such as about one's sexual activity for example).

Sexual privacy prevents a person from being forced to carry a pregnancy to term and enables individuals to acquire and use contraceptives and safe sex supplies and information without community or legal review

Political privacy has been a concern since voting systems emerged in ancient times. The secret ballot is the simplest and most widespread measure to ensure that political views are not known to anyone other than the original voter — it is nearly universal in modern democracy, and considered a basic right of citizenship. In fact even where other rights of privacy do not exist, this type of privacy very often does.

3.) Organizational

Governments agencies, corporations, and other organizations may desire to keep their activities or secrets from being revealed to other organizations or individuals. Such organizations may implement various security practices in order to prevent this. Organizations may seek legal protection for their secrets. For example, a government administration may be able to invoke executive privilege or declares certain information to be classified, or a corporation might attempt to protect trade secrets.

4.) Spiritual and intellectual

The earliest development of privacy rights began under British common law, which protected "only the physical interference of life and property." Its development from then on became "one of the most significant chapters in the history of privacy law." Privacy rights gradually expanded to include a "recognition of man's spiritual nature, of his feelings and his intellect." Eventually, the scope of those rights broadened even further to include a basic "right to be let alone," and the former definition of "property" would then comprise "every form of possession -- intangible, as well as tangible." By the late 19th century, interest in a "right to privacy" grew as a response to the growth of print media, especially newspapers.

HISTORY OF PRIVACY

Privacy and technology

As technology has advanced, the way in which privacy is protected and violated has changed with it. In the case of some technologies, such as the printing press or the Internet, the increased ability to share information can lead to new ways in which privacy can be breached. It is generally agreed that the first publication advocating privacy in the United States was the article by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, The Right to Privacy, 4 Harvard L.R. 193 (1890), that was written largely in response to the increase in newspapers and photographs made possible by printing technologies.

New technologies can also create new ways to gather private information. For example, in the U.S. it was thought that heat sensors intended to be used to find marijuana growing operations would be acceptable. However in 2001 in Kyllo v. United States (533 U.S. 27) it was decided that thermal imaging devices that can reveal previously unknown information without a warrant does indeed constitute a violation of privacy.

Generally the increased ability to gather and send information has had negative implications for retaining privacy. As large scale information systems become more common, there is so much information stored in many databases worldwide that an individual has no way of knowing of or controlling all of the information about themselves that others may have access to. Such information could potentially be sold to others for profit and/or be used for purposes not known to the individual of which the information is about. The concept of information privacy has become more significant as more systems controlling more information appear. Also the consequences of a violation of privacy can be more severe. Privacy law in many countries has had to adapt to changes in technology to address these issues and maintain people's rights to privacy as they see fit. But the existing global privacy rights framework has also been criticized as incoherent and inefficient. Proposals such as the APEC Privacy Framework have emerged which set out to provide the first comprehensive legal framework on the issue of global data privacy.

Privacy and the Internet

he Internet has brought new concerns about privacy in an age where computers can permanently store records of everything: "where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever," writes law professor and author Jeffrey Rosen.

This currently has an effect on employment. Microsoft reports that 75 percent of U.S. recruiters and human-resource professionals now do online research about candidates, often using information provided by search engines, social-networking sites, photo/video-sharing sites, personal web sites and blogs, and Twitter. They also report that 70 percent of U.S. recruiters have rejected candidates based on internet information.[11] This has created a need by many to control various online privacy settings in addition to controlling their online reputations, both of which have led to legal suits against various sites and employers.

The ability to do online inquiries about individuals has expanded dramatically over the last decade. Facebook for example, as of July 2010, was the largest social-networking site, with nearly 500 million members, or 22 percent of all Internet users, who upload over 25 billion pieces of content each month. Twitter has more than 100 million registered users. The Library of Congress recently announced that it will be acquiring — and permanently storing — the entire archive of public Twitter posts since 2006, reports Rosen.

Top 10 Privacy Issues for 2011

The prevalence of mobile devices with personally identifiable location-based information and the increasing use of social media are top concerns for 2011.

With more personal information available on the Internet, in everyday consumer applications and stored in corporate databases, risks to consumers and companies will only grow in the next year.



In addition, increasing regulations and new laws will force many organizations in 2011 to review their handling of private information and implement new programs to minimize their risks. To deal with these increasing threats and obligations, more organizations will create stronger privacy policies and turn to encryption, web filtering and secure managed file transfer.

Proofpoint predicts the following trends will dominate privacy discussions in 2011:

1. The privacy and confidentiality of location-based information will become a major concern for both consumers and corporations. With the rise in mobile GPS information, companies will have to protect both personally identifiable information (PII) of employees, customers and partners, and also create new policies for handling location-based information. Not only will real-time information about location be a vulnerability, but companies will have access to information about where people (or their devices) spend much of their time.

2. At least one major social media site will experience a major breach. According to Neilsen, nearly a quarter (22.7%) of all online time is spent social networking. With more people on social networks and more personal information available via those networks, the potential for exposure of that data is likely.

3. Stricter regulations will be passed worldwide. Privacy regulations in the healthcare, financial services and critical infrastructure industries like energy and telecommunications will likely see new regulations dictating what needs to be protected and what to do when data loss occurs.

4. Expect a national data breach notification law. Notification laws like California’s SB 1386 exist in 46 of 50 states today. A federal law is imminent.

5. Blended threats will increase. While email is still the number one threat vector for personal information loss, threats from newer communications channels is increasing, especially in the form of blended threats where the target is first attacked through email, then directed to Web or social media.

6. At least one company will be prosecuted under the broad-reaching Massachusetts Privacy Law (201 CMR 17.00). In March of this year, the Massachusetts Privacy Law went into effect, mandating that any company that “owns or licenses” personal information—whether stored in electronic or paper form—about Massachusetts residents must comply with its privacy requirements, including notification of breaches and encryption of stored or transmitted personal data. Although the state has yet to enforce the law, 2011 will likely be the year that companies begin seeing penalties. In addition, we may see more laws of this type passed in 2011. Nevada also has a similar law.

To deal with these threats, the following additional trends will emerge among businesses:

7. Companies will move away from outright bans on social networks, IM or web mail to allowing those services, but applying stricter corporate policies on these new services as well as investing in secure web gateways to monitor use. New innovations such as Facebook mail give enterprises yet another good reason to put better policy and technology controls around the corporate email system.

8. More companies will create policy around acceptable use. Email leaks such as the recent Google corporate memo exposure are heightening awareness in companies that policies need to be created about what content is considered sensitive and enforce them both through technology and through training.

9. More companies will encrypt more data. Three factors are converging to make 2011 the year of encryption adoption. (1) More regulations today require encryption. (2) It’s become a best practice in many industries. (3) It’s easier to implement and less confusing for users. With processing power increasing and companies innovating, encryption has become faster and easier to implement and use.

10. More interest in secure managed file transfer. Driven by privacy considerations and security flaws in FTP, more companies will be implementing reliable ways to send files securely. With data breach notification laws in place in nearly every state, companies cannot risk losing data through FTP security issues.

About Ethics in Information Technology

Every advancement in information technology is accompanied by at least one ethical quandary. From Facebook to email updates, computer users are unaware of the fine balance between ethics and profit struck by providers. Software developers, businesses and individuals must think about the rights and wrongs of using information technology every day. The fundamental issues underlying the world of information technology are the end user's expectation of privacy and the provider's ethical duty to use applications or email responsibly.

Data Mining


Data mining covers a wide range of activities that turn numbers, words and other data into distinguishable patterns. In the hands of a responsible agency or business, data mining can determine a probable next step for a terrorist cell or determine buying patterns within demographic groups. This practice has been assailed in the post 9/11 world as part of a widespread pattern of invasions of privacy carried out by America's intelligence experts. The practices of the Total Information Awareness Progress in particular were thought to pry into the day-to-day lives of innocent people by IT ethics experts and civil libertarians.

Social Networking

The social networking craze may allow people around the world to speak with each other but it has also brought up several IT ethics issues. Facebook initiated a program called Beacon in 2007 to turn each user's personal information into an advertisement, allowing a greater amount of connectivity between the website's members. Facebook's developers failed to create an opt-in system that gave willing users the chance to participate of their own accord. Beacon came under fire for pulling information from Facebook profiles and breaking down privacy boundaries common in the real world. Another ethical issue for social networking websites is the amount of security they should use when registering members. Several abductions in recent years have been connected to MySpace, bringing up concerns that social networking sites aren't doing enough to protect young users.

E-Mail Spam

Spam is defined broadly as emails with commercial or profane messages that are sent blindly to hundreds and thousands of users. Aside from the content of spam email, the major ethical issues for service providers and individuals alike involve identifying spammers. Email programs through AOL and Yahoo! may identify some spammers who are brazen enough to send out millions of emails but their spam programs rely largely on user feedback. While some users will identify legitimate spammers carrying viruses and pornographic messages, there is the potential for users to identify legitimate companies as spammers.

Intellectual Property and Information Technology

The merger of intellectual property rights and information technology has been rough going since the 1990s. The advent of Napster, Limewire and other peer-to-peer downloading networks brought the issue of infringing on artistic property to the fore. NBC's exclusive rights to the 2008 Olympic Games were challenged by bloggers and online pirates who placed footage on YouTube. The ethical issue that arises when dealing with intellectual property in the virtual world is the length to which content producers should pursue permission to reprint images and articles. While lifting entire articles for a term paper is clearly unacceptable, there are questions from ethicists about the practicality of seeking out unknown artists and writers for something as minor as a blog.

Filtering Online Content

Comcast has come under fire in the past two years for blocking downloads from Bit Torrent. The Internet service provider (ISP) has claimed that "throttling down" downloads via Bit Torrent is a reasonable element of maintaining high-speed service. Religious groups, adult websites and others have banned together in an unusual alliance to fight Comcast's effort to filter content. The major ethical debate raged between ISP, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and end users is whether Internet service should be content-neutral.