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Privacy In Today's Electronic World

By possum

In recent months there has been much discussion about the telecommunication industry and its involvement in warrantless wiretapping in response to orders from the Bush administration.  What is less newsworthy in our mainstream media is the far reaching effect of legal searches brought about by the power of a subpoena.

A recent story tells the tale of Google's being ordered to turn over YouTube user data.

For every video on YouTube, the judge required Google to turn over to Viacom the login name of every user who had watched it, and the address of their computer, known as an I.P. or Internet protocol address.

This is a massive amount of information which if examined in the right ways may allow profiling of individual user's activities online.
Online usage reflects a larger measure of an individual's life than do medical records, financial records, school records or other solitary glimpses.

All this raises questions Internet companies, privacy regulators, and Congress would be wise to consider:

   * How much data should be retained by Internet companies and for how long?
   * What should Internet users be told about what sort of information could be disclosed about them in response to a legal action or government request?
   * Should there be new laws that define more clearly what the standards are for disclosing online surfing and searching activity?

Given computer's storage of every bit and byte of data that passes through their circuits, how indeed do we protect our privacy into the electronic future?  There is much we must consider.  We must face the needs of national security and of copyright.  Still our Bill of Rights insures the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.  How will be balance all these different aspects of life?  What part will hardware play as opposed to software or laws?

In 2006, after AOL released for research purposes the search records of thousands of anonymous users, reporters from The New York Times were able to track down one person by analyzing her search queries. Mr. Opsahl said anonymous viewing habits may similarly yield clues about the identity of viewers.

The future poses many interesting opportunities for the spread of information.  Computers change the way we interact with each other and with our surroundings in ways no one could have predicted a few short years ago.  Only time will tell for sure how matters of privacy are to play out, but we must all consider ourselves forewarned today.  We are all one subpoena away from having our entire online lives laid open to examination.

Peace.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on September 12, 2008 (boomark / email).