Privacy on the Net
I’ve learned in law school that there is no Constitutional right to privacy. Fifty plus years ago, at least some Supreme Courts opined of a right to privacy, but since the 1970’s or so, the courts seem to hold that US citizens only have an expectation of privacy.
Privacy is a big issue on the net. Nobody wants their credit card numbers, bank accounts, or social security data stolen. And yet, this data is transmitted through various networks on a regular basis and stored on hard drives that are periodically lost.
On the other hand, in the age of social networking, many folks, myself included, are willing to publish some forms of personal info on their blogs and status updates. Between Twitter and Facebook, you can find applications that read GPS coordinates from your cell and post your current location along with your status. Thus, your chosen circle of friends, and perhaps others will be able to know when you’re hanging at home, attending a concert or sipping a latte at a Starbucks in Beijing.
There are two forms of private information. The first kind is that which a reasonable person would want to protect, such as their financial data and other information which could be used for identity theft and similar activities. Given the social cost of not properly protecting this kind of information, perhaps a right to privacy applies here.
The second kind is information that some people want to protect, but others want to share. But maybe they want to share it with a select audience, not the whole world. This type of information ideally requires the sharer to opt-in to sharing and not vice versa. The sharer might have a reasonable expectation that the social media service is going to only publish and share what he or she indicates is allowable. However, once this information is shared, even with a small circle of contacts, the sharer’s expectation of privacy is likely gone.
It is too hard to protect information that is released onto the net. Once it is out, it is out.
Cutting between these two kinds of information is not easy, but perhaps it can be left up to the individual user. Give the user control over what information he wants to share and let him set his expectations of privacy based on his decisions to share or not to share.