This document provides an overview of privacy and related concepts from an ethics perspective. It defines privacy as allowing individuals some level of control over access to their personal information and physical selves. The document discusses perspectives on privacy, ways technology can compromise privacy, and benefits and harms of privacy. It also covers topics like trusting relationships, disclosing information, data mining, identity theft, and encryption. The learning outcomes are to explain privacy perspectives, describe how technology impacts privacy, and apply ethics to privacy issues.

1. CISB 412
Social and Professional Issues
Understanding Privacy

2. Reference
• Materials used in this presentation are extracted mainly
from the following texts, unless stated otherwise.
Michael J. Quinn “Ethics for the
Information Age”, 3rd edition.
Pearson 2009

3. Learning Outcomes
• At the end of this lesson you should be able to
▫ Explain the perspectives of privacy
▫ Describe ways privacy can be compromised through
the usage of technology
▫ Apply the ethical principles on the issues of privacy
to establish morality of the action

4. What is Privacy ?

5. Defining Privacy
• Discussions about privacy revolve around the
concept of ‘access’
• Access can be seen from 2 perspectives:
▫ Physical proximity to a person
▫ Knowledge about a person
• You exercise your privacy when you :
▫ lock the door behind you when using a restroom
▫ choose not tell the clerk at the video shop your
mobile number

6. Defining Privacy
• “Social arrangement that allows individuals to
have some level of control of who is able to gain
access to their physical selves and their personal
information”
• Violating someone’s privacy is considered an
insult to the person’s dignity.

7. Harms of Privacy
• People may take advantage of privacy to plan
and cover up illegal or immoral activities
• Examples:
▫ Family violence
▫ Social and economics inequities
• A challenge in parenting duties
• Love thy neighbour – who is my neighbour?

8. Benefits of Privacy
• Individual growth, individual responsibility – a
way society acknowledge and communicates to
an individual that he/she is responsible or his
own development as a unique person
• Freedom to be yourself, allow us to remove our
public persona
• Shut out the world, be more creative
• Development of loving, trusting, caring, intimate
relationships – privacy ladder

9. Privacy and Trust
• Trusting is easier a couple of centuries ago
• Greater emphasis on community, lesser on
individual
• Pressure to conform

10. Privacy and Trust
• Modern life more private
• Challenge: living among strangers
• How can we be sure that …
▫ Taxi driver will get us to our destination without
hurting us?
▫ The teachers at school are not child molesters?
▫ Bank knows that if it loans someone money, it will be
repaid?

11. Privacy and Trust
• In order to trust, we must rely on the reputations
• This was easier in the past.
• Today’s society must get information out of
people to establish reputation:
▫ Through ordeal e.g. lie detector, drug test
▫ Through issuing/requesting credentials e.g.
drivers license, badge, id, degree transcript etc
• Establishing reputation → reducing privacy

12. Disclosing Information
• Public record
• Contains information about an incident or
action reported for the purpose of
informing the public
• E.g.
▫ Birth certificates, death certificates,
criminal records, police report
▫ Census Record
▫ Internal Revenue (Taxation)

13. Disclosing Information
• Public information
▫ Information you have provided to an organization
that has the right to share it with other
organization
▫ E.g.
 Listing in phone directory
 Rewards, Loyalty Programs
 Digital Video Recorder
 Automobile Black Box
 Implanted Chips
 Spyware, Cookies

14. Disclosing Information
• Personal information
▫ undisclosed information, will remain personal
information as long as you never disclose to a
party that has the right to share with others
▫ E.g. Your religion, your mobile number
• Types of disclosures
▫ Voluntary (e.g. form filling)
▫ Involuntary (e.g. CCTV)
▫ Statutory (e.g. obtaining license, loan)

15. Data Mining
• Data mining
▫ Searching for patterns or relationships in one or
more databases
▫ Way to generate new information
• Secondary use: information collected for one
purpose used for another purpose
• Information about customers is a valuable
commodity

16. Ownership of Transaction
Information
• Who controls transaction information?
▫ Buyer?
▫ Seller?
▫ Both?
• Opt-in: consumer must explicitly give
permission for the organization to share info
• Opt-out: consumer must explicitly forbid an
organization from sharing info

17. Identity Theft
• Identity theft: misuse of another person’s
identity to take actions permitted to the owner
• Credit card fraud #1 type of identity theft
▫ Ease of opening accounts contributes to problem
▫ 10 million victims in 2004 alone

18. Identity Theft
• Not necessary the result of IT, information can
also be obtained through low-tech method :
dumpster diving, shoulder surfing
• Example of high-tech method : use of
skimmer/wedges at ATM, credit card machines,
phishing

19. Encryption
• The process of transforming a message in order
to conceal its meaning
• A valuable tool for maintaining privacy
• Information can be deemed worthless unless it
can be decoded

20. Symmetric Encryption
• Single key used to encrypt and decrypt a
message
• Both sender and receiver must have the key
• Problem: How does sender get key to receiver?
• If bad guy gets key, security is broken

21. Public Key Encryption
• An example of asymmetric encryption
• Each person has two keys: public and private
• To send R a message, encrypt it with R’s
public key
• R decrypts message with R’s private key
• No need to communicate keys
• Strong encryption: virtually impossible to
figure out private key.

22. Try this
• Should parents implant microchips in their
children? Why?

23. Try this
• Video surveillance is used widely at public
places. Do you agree with this approach of
‘maintaining public safety’? What is the
advantages and disadvantages.

24. Try this
• A CCTV is installed at a house to monitor the
maid who is employed to do the housekeeping
and babysitting job. Is this ethical? Which
ethical theory do you plan to use in supporting
your argument. Supposed you find that this is
unethical, what can you do to ‘soften the blow’?

25. Questions?