The Right of Privacy

[ConstantineX]

Surprisingly I'm not talking about abortion. Privacy is one of the few issues that I don't have a clear philosophical position on. I think instinctively everyone has a right not to be bothered, especially not by the government, but I don't think a iron right to "privacy" can ever be enforced, for free speech considerations and technological issues. The Lewinsky and Foley scandals, that deal with the Facebook intern and personal experience has convinced me that in the future we're not going to be able enforce even reasonable (not ideological) bounds on privacy in the future. Your personal information, even what normal people would consider "private" stuff, like one's sex life and immature childhood behavior will be instantly Google-able to anyone interested. Already there are algorithmic programs scanning Flickr and Photobucket reconstructing personal histories, and police are solving crimes using Myspace. Privacy is going to be a huge social issue in the future and is going to force us to rethink alot of instinctual behavior, like superficial condemnation and the political process.

Thoughts?

[Ron Burgundy]

Uhh.... don't post info on the internet that you wouldn't want people to see?

[Dan.]

Do you want to discuss a right to privacy in a legal sense or in a philosophical sense?

[ConstantineX]

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Do you want to discuss a right to privacy in a legal sense or in a philosophical sense?

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Whatever. Here are some practical questions: Does a corporation have the right to track you from your publically released information? Can and should famous people own their media rights? How could privacy legislation impede consumers (ads are only a nuisance if you don't want I'm selling!)?

[pvn]

[ QUOTE ]
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Do you want to discuss a right to privacy in a legal sense or in a philosophical sense?

[/ QUOTE ]

Whatever. Here are some practical questions: Does a corporation have the right to track you from your publically released information?

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Of course. Corporations are just people. And people can collect freely-available data. To suggest otherwise is ridiculous. Should people be legally required to "forget" things that we don't want them to remember?

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Can and should famous people own their media rights?

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Copyright, sure.

Misuse of likeness could be covered under fraud in many cases.

"media rights" is too broad to address with a single rule imo.

[DblBarrelJ]

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Corporations are just people. And people can collect freely-available data. To suggest otherwise is ridiculous. Should people be legally required to "forget" things that we don't want them to remember?

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I will admit, one of the most shocking things I learned while going through the academy is the amount of free information available on anyone to anyone.

While I do think safety necessitates the general public to have access to information on certain types of offenders, namely violent sex offenders, I do think that it is absurd that anyone can go to the county courthouse and pull up copies of every traffic ticket you've ever recieved in that county, along with your home address, drivers license #, and a copy of your signature.

If we're talking philosophy here and not hard law, I'm not too crazy about making court proceedings for civil cases public record either. If you want to make the records for felony criminal matters public record, that's fine, but I can't tell you how many times I've been involved in an investigation and done a records search at the courthouse and found vital information on a suspect through the means of a divorce proceeding or other child custody matter.

By vital records, I am referring to things such as bank account #'s, SSNs, salaries, place of employment, etc.

[DblBarrelJ]

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Uhh.... don't post info on the internet that you wouldn't want people to see?

[/ QUOTE ]

WINNAR!!

[ALawPoker]

I think I see what you're getting at.

Something to keep in mind is that as it becomes more common for people to easily dig up that picture of you puking into the bushes or making out with a fat chic, social expectations will change in accordance. Since it's easier to find out that your neighbor likes to smoke pot or your old best friend from middle school is gay, people will just get used to interpreting these things as less of a big deal. I think what you're getting at is actually a good thing, as exposure to other peoples' habits encourages tolerance. I tend to think intolerance of others' personal private behaviors really only exists because people aren't exposed to it. So they're biased into thinking it is a big deal and they need to stop it.

And of course, like Burgundy said, if something is really that private to you, you just don't post it on the internet (or put yourself in a position where someone else could take a picture of it).

[adios]

[ QUOTE ]
I think I see what you're getting at.

Something to keep in mind is that as it becomes more common for people to easily dig up that picture of you puking into the bushes or making out with a fat chic, social expectations will change in accordance. Since it's easier to find out that your neighbor likes to smoke pot or your old best friend from middle school is gay, people will just get used to interpreting these things as less of a big deal. I think what you're getting at is actually a good thing, as exposure to other peoples' habits encourages tolerance. I tend to think intolerance of others' personal private behaviors really only exists because people aren't exposed to it. So they're biased into thinking it is a big deal and they need to stop it.

And of course, like Burgundy said, if something is really that private to you, you just don't post it on the internet (or put yourself in a position where someone else could take a picture of it).

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Well it does seem to me like people have been photographed with cell phones and had those pictures put on the internet when they really didn't want that to happen. I guess that will influence people to start shaping up too.

[ALawPoker]

Ya, I guess being photographed without consent is an interesting philosophical argument. To me it's similar to calling someone fat or ugly. I don't really see a good reason why you shouldn't be able to do it, but it isn't a very nice thing to do. So people will apply consequence. If you go around needlessly insulting people you will be stigmatized and not have many friends.

As long as people find a way to make it harder for people to post these pictures anonymously, then there can be the necessary equal and opposite social reaction.