Imagine a water conservation program in which the government would monitor the showering habits of all Americans. A tiny camera in each American bathroom would collect imagery of what goes on within, but by law and emphatically stated policy that imagery would never be accessed except under a secret court’s order. Privacy problem? You bet. Because Americans’ control of information about their lives would be taken from them. Instead, it would rest with a government body, operating under rules that could change and personnel that could violate those rules–a lesson of the recent IRS scandal. Alan Westin passed away in February after a sterling life of privacy research, advocacy, and advisement. In his seminal 1967 book, Privacy and Freedom, he defined privacy as the claim of individuals “to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others.” This is the heart of privacy: control over personal information. Data seized by the government and held in secret data warehouses according to secret rules is not within the control of the American people. It is not private.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 01:39:07 +0000
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