Privacy in the Information Age

22 March

• So we're back with the mosque example. There are zoning issues, of course. But how does the mosque attract members? There's free association, free exercise, etc.
• So now back to the NAACP case. In that case, there was a public safety issue. So what about virtual-world associations, though: there's no zoning here, there's no fire hazard, but you're creating a record of what your interests are and who you're associated with: under what circumstances can that information be compelled?
• Nice point about targeted web advertising: without it, we might not be able to have free content (i.e., web advertising wouldn't pay well enough to support the free content model).
• Another nice point: pre-Internet, you couldn't do much stuff with anonymity. So there was a sudden feeling of great anonymity, and it took a while for the technology to catch up, and then there was less anonymity than people thought they had.
• There can't really be a chilling effect here, in the sense that most people didn't know what they were giving up.
• Right to privacy vs. Expectation of privacy: you have the right to keep things private, but maybe not a default expectation.
• Where does your consent start and end, and what can you do about it if it's breached? So if I consent to share info with 1 web site, and they sell it on, can I complain? If so, to whom? Or what if it's just stolen?
• Are the evidentiary privileges (attorney-client, spousal, etc.) expressions of a generalized privacy expectation?
• What about subpoenas for data on work computers? Consider the person who works at a criminal defense firm: can you get data off of a lawyer's computer?
• What is the harm when private communication is intercepted? Is it only in re-disclosure? Or is it a harm in and of itself? Most of the laws are aimed at the use of the information, not just the acquisition of it.
• Trolling/flaming is facilitated by anonymity: maybe people should think about the consequences of what they write. This is the opposite of keeping things private in the interests of decorum.
• Also, people are going to get better at this: what upset Warren and Brandeis wouldn't alarm us now (a photo taken at a society event). We'll learn to modulate our online interactions over time. But the record is permanent.