Data Security & Privacy

With All This Talk About Cyber-Security, What About Privacy?

 
In The New York Times today, columnist Saul Hansell, talked about the fact that the Obama Administration has been interestingly silent on the topic of privacy ever since there was a push late last week to bring cyber-security to the forefront of the American psyche.  At the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, Ohio State law professor, Peter Swire, who served on the Obama Administration transition team, offered up a reason for the avoidance – he stated that there is a division between the typical view of privacy among technology experts and the emerging view that is taking shape with the Web 2.0 world.  According to Mr. Swire, "[t]he Web 2.0 movement is opposed to the privacy movement…[and that we] have become producers of our own data."  Thus, the lines have been drawn, on one side there is the "old guard" that says the less the government knows about us, the better, but then there is another emerging group that talks about [to use Mr. Swire and Mr. Hansell’s words] "data empowerment" and they have the philosophy that more is better.  I have some times commented on the fact that to protect one’s privacy, more information is needed about that individual.  It is an ironic twist of fate in the data privacy and security world.
 
The other point that should be considered is how Americans view privacy, compared to the rest of the world.  For the most part, we as a country see privacy as a right belonging to the owner of the data (i.e. opt in versus opt out forms), as opposed to say Canadian or European countries, where they see privacy as belonging to the individual to which the information is about (not who controls/owns the information).  For an administration that used social networking sits and grass roots organizing via the Web 2.0 world, it is no wonder why they choose to remain silent when it comes to privacy.  Afterall, if you’ve read your "terms of use" on Facebook, myspace, or hotmail, it may come as a surprise as to who owns those family vacation photos once downloaded to the web site.
 
To view more about this article, please click here:  The Obama Administration’s Silence on Privacy

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