A few ideas around Privacy

David stressed out [1] the tension in between having access to data and hiding data. I'm reading an essay about personal data and privacy (in French) with a lot of background information. (yeah! preparing the Workshop ;) )

The privacy birth act in western societies seem to happen with an article by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis in Harvard Law Review in *1890*: "The Right To Privacy"

As I wrote it on the wiki [3].

* Secret: Ability of someone to control the personal
  data gathering and usage. 

  One school of thoughts (Chicago school of economics[4])
  is argueing that hiding personal data is suspicious, like
  a company which would hides flaws in a product. It seems
  to be the position expressed by some big companies in the 
  past (If you have something to hide, you should not do it
  in the first place).

  Others associate the secret to the idea of individual 
  freedom. The freedom of having sexual preferences, 
  religion, ideas and behaviors which are not the business 
  of others.

* Calmness: Possibility for someone to not be
  disturbed in the daily life, with a control on the
  ability of people accessing you. 
  Spam is a direct example of breach of this principle.
  This includes the possibility to be forgotten (be removed
  of previous logs for example). 
  Bok defines it as 1) physical seclusion, 
                    2) information privacy 
                    3) attentional privacy
  Important to note that with computing physical proximity
  is not necessary anymore for monitoring people. It 
  becomes a bit more complex. (geolocation)

* Individual autonomy: Ability to take important
  decisions in a way that enable self expression and
  diverse intimate relationships.
  Hischleifer defines it as "the human desire of 
  independence from others' control, to control one own's 
  person and one own's time."


[1]: http://www.w3.org/mid/6115D1D2-C266-4ECD-95A7-29F41777CAFD@apple.com
[2]: Économie des données personnelles et de la vie privée, Fabrice Rochelandet, http://c8l.ca/149
[3]: http://www.w3.org/wiki/Privacy
[4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_school_(economics)

-- 
Karl Dubost - http://dev.opera.com/
Developer Relations & Tools, Opera Software

Received on Friday, 8 April 2011 23:39:18 UTC