IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems

Chapter 4: PRIVACY

Overview

Computer technologies – databases, digital cameras, the Web, among others – have
profoundly changed what people can know about us and how they can use the information.
Understanding the risks and problems is a first step toward protecting privacy. For computer
professionals, understanding the risks and problems is a step toward designing systems with
built-in privacy protections and fewer risks.

Privacy relates to an individual's ability to determine for themselves when, how, and for
what purpose their personal information is handled by others. Protecting privacy is key to ensuring
human dignity, safety and self-determination. It allows individuals freely develop their own
personality.

Learning Objectives

At the end of the chapter, student will be able to:

• Identify the three key aspects of privacy
• Determine the different privacy threats
• Identify and explain the different terminology and principles for data collection and
use such as invisible information gathering, databases, data mining and computer
watching, video surveillance
• Describe how to protect privacy
• Analyze issues/scenario where privacy is being invaded
• Evaluate the ethical issues on the different case scenario presented

Topic Outline

• Key Aspects of Privacy

• New Technology, New Risks
• Principles for Data Collection and Use
• Privacy Principles for Personal Information
• Importance of Privacy
 IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems
Chapter 4: PRIVACY

Key Aspects of Privacy

• Freedom from intrusion (being left alone)

• Control of information about oneself
• Freedom from surveillance (being tracked, followed, watched)

Privacy threats come in several categories:

• Intentional, institutional uses of personal information (primarily for law enforcement
and tax collection in the government sector and for marketing and decision making in
the private sector by both businesses and organizations)
• Unauthorized use or release by “insiders”, the people who maintain the information
• Theft of information
• Inadvertent leakage of information through negligence or carelessness
• Our own actions (sometimes intentional trade-offs and sometimes when we are
unaware of the risks)

New Technology, New Risks

• Government and private databases

It contains personal information about us like our specific purchases in supermarkets and
bookstores. Others like bankruptcy records, health record.

Now, the speed and power of search and analysis tool when applied to all the data about us
in myriad databases make it easy to produce detailed profiles of our personal characteristics,
relationships activities, opinions and habits.

Now, when we communicate by e'-mail and on Web sites, our words are recorded and can
be copied, forwarded, widely distributed, and read by others years later.

Government agencies have very sophisticated tools for eavesdropping, watching us, and
collecting and analyzing data about us. They can use the tools to reduce crime and
increase security – and to infringe privacy.

Search Query Databases

• Anything we do online is recorded, at least briefly, and linked to our computer, if not
our name.
• With the huge amount of storage space available, companies, organizations and
governments save huge amounts of data that no one would have imagined saving in
the recent past.
• People often are not aware that information about them and their activities is being
collected and saved.

Compiled by: Marlyn M. Bermoza, MIT

Faculty
 IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems
Chapter 4: PRIVACY

• Leaks happen. The existence of the data presents a risk.

• A collection of many small items of information, in this case, search queries, can give
a fairly detailed picture of a person’s life.
• Direct association with a person’s name is not essential for compromising privacy.
Re-identification has become much easier due to the quantity of personal information
stored and the power of data search and analysis tools.
• The government sometimes requests or demands sensitive personal data held by
businesses and organizations.
• Information on a public Web site will be found by people other than those for whom it
was intended. It is available to everyone.
• Once data goes on the Internet or into a database, it seems to last forever. People
quickly make and distribute copies. It is almost impossible to remove released
information from circulation.
• It is extremely likely that data collected for one purpose will to be used for other
purposes (such as business planning)
• We cannot directly protect information about ourselves.

• Sophisticated tools for surveillance and data analysis

Surveillance is the covert observation of people, places and vehicles, which law
enforcement agencies and private detectives use to investigate allegations of illegal
behavior. These techniques range from physical observation to the electronic monitoring of
conversations. Surveillance also carries major risks, however. The detection of a private
investigator's presence in an area will compromise his future activities there. For undercover
officers, any unmasking of their identity and purpose may result in injury or death.

Types of Surveillance in Criminal Investigations

• Electronic Monitoring

Electronic monitoring, or wiretapping, refers to the surveillance of email, fax,

Internet and telephone communications. This activity requires a court order to
proceed, based on a U.S. government affidavit showing that a crime has been, is
being or will be committed. However, if a person risks severe injury or death, the
government can ask to start monitoring communications right away, the U.S.
Department of Justice states.

Similar exceptions are made for organized crime or national security cases.
Once an order is granted, police agencies can identify criminal conspirators to
deter or punish the offenders involved. Other examples of electronic monitoring
include drones, license plate readers, computer forensics and subpoena of data
stored in the cloud.

Compiled by: Marlyn M. Bermoza, MIT

Faculty
 IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems
Chapter 4: PRIVACY

New technologies can push the limits of privacy. For instance, stingray
tracking devices allow law enforcement to determine the location of a suspect's
cell phone, as well as the identity of random individuals close by.

• Fixed Surveillance

The fixed surveillance, or "stakeout," requires officers to surreptitiously observe

people and places from a distance. Variations include the one- and two-person
surveillance methods. According to author and criminal justice professor Michael
Palmiotto, the two-person approach is considered more desirable. It allows officers
to periodically switch positions, reducing a suspect's chances of spotting them. By
contrast, an officer assigned to one-person surveillance can't take his eyes off the
scene and has nobody to relieve him.

• Stationary Technical Surveillance

In stationary technical surveillance, the investigator installs a hidden camera

and recording equipment in a parked car. The vehicle sits in an area that draws
little attention, such as a parking lot. This technique is sometimes called unmanned
surveillance, according to the International Federation for Protection Officers.
Investigators can record photo and video images at any time, reducing the need
for humans to monitor a situation around the clock. Surveillance teams come and
go as they wish, so the risk of discovery is smaller, too.

• Three-Person Surveillance

Three-person surveillance methods are more complex to run, but provide two
bonuses, according to Palmiotto's book, "Criminal Investigation." Officers can
change positions more ofte n, which greatly reduces the possibility of detection.
This technique is also called the ABC Method, whose name refers to the officers'
assigned roles. Person A stays behind the suspect, followed by the second officer,
Person B. The third officer, Person C, remains on the opposite side of the street,
but always moves slightly ahead of -- or behind -- the suspect.

• Undercover Operations

Undercover operations amount to another form of surveillance, but in this

method the officer plays an active role in revealing criminal activities. For example,
an undercover gang investigator might begin infiltrating the group by adopting the
same hobbies or jobs as the suspects. To gain acceptance within the gang and
build trust, the officer must also create a plausible cover story that explains his
presence in the neighborhood.

Compiled by: Marlyn M. Bermoza, MIT

Faculty
 IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems
Chapter 4: PRIVACY

Security Surveillance Software

This software is for passive biometric identification which is defined as when people pass
by the cameras without making any attempts to be recognized.

Some possible uses include:

• law enforcement,
• security,
• attendance control,
• visitor counting,
• and other commercial applications.

• Vulnerability of data

• Invisible information gathering - collection of personal information about someone

without the person’s knowledge

Example:
A company offered a free program that changed a Web browser’s cursor into a cartoon
character or other image. Millions of people installed the program and then later
discovered that the program sent the company a report of the Web sites its users visited,
along with a customer identification number in the software.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Web sites can invisibly collect such details of our
online activities as where we went, what we did, what browser we use and how long we
stayed at a particular page

Cookies are files a Web site stores on each visitor’s computer. The site stores within
the cookie, and then uses information about the visitor’s activity.

Many web sites use cookies. They helped companies provide personalized customer
service and target advertising to the interests of each visitor.

• Secondary use - use of personal information for a purpose other than the one it was
provided for.

Examples:
1. Sales of consumer information to marketers or other businesses
2. Use of information in various databases to deny someone a job or to tailor
political pitch
3. Use of numerous databases by Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to find
people with high incomes.

• Data mining - searching and analyzing masses of data to find patterns and develop
new information or knowledge

• Computer matching - combining and comparing information from different databases

(using social security number, for example, to match records)

Compiled by: Marlyn M. Bermoza, MIT

Faculty
 IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems
Chapter 4: PRIVACY

• Computer profiling - analyzing data in computer files to determine characteristics of

people most likely to engage in certain behavior

Businesses use these techniques to find likely new customers. Government agencies
use them to detect fraud, to enforce other laws, and to find terrorist suspects or
evidences of terrorist activity.

Principles for Data Collection and Use:

• Informed consent
The first principle for ethical treatment of personal information is informed consent. When
people are informed about the data collection and use policies of a business or
organization, they can decide whether or not to interact with that business or organization.

• Opt-in and opt-out policies

Some control over secondary uses two common forms: OPT OUT and OPT IN

Under opt-out policy, one must check or click a box on a contract, membership form, or
agreement, or call or write to the organization to request that one’s information not be used
in a particular way.

Under the opt-in policy, the collector of the information may not use it for other purposes
unless the consumer explicitly checks or clicks a box or signs a form permitting the use.

Privacy Principles for Personal Information

✓ Inform people when personally identifiable information about them is collected, what is
collected, and how it will be used.
✓ Collect only the data needed
✓ Offer a way for people to opt out from mailing lists, advertising, and transfer of their data
to other parties, and other secondary uses.
✓ Provide stronger protection for sensitive data, for example, an opt-in policy for disclosure
of medical data
✓ Keep data only as long as needed
✓ Maintain accuracy of data
✓ Protect security of data (from theft and from accidental leaks)
✓ Develop policies for responding a law enforcement requests for data

• Fair Information Principles (or Practices)

• Data retention

Compiled by: Marlyn M. Bermoza, MIT

Faculty
 IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems
Chapter 4: PRIVACY

Importance of Privacy
1. Limit on Power
Privacy is a limit on government power, as well as the power of private sector companies.
The more someone knows about us, the more power they can have over us. Personal
data is used to make very important decisions in our lives. Personal data can be used to
affect our reputations; and it can be used to influence our decisions and shape our
behavior. It can be used as a tool to exercise control over us. And in the wrong hands,
personal data can be used to cause us great harm.
2. Respect for Individuals
Privacy is about respecting individuals. If a person has a reasonable desire to keep
something private, it is disrespectful to ignore that person’s wishes without a compelling
reason to do so. Of course, the desire for privacy can conflict with important values, so
privacy may not always win out in the balance. Sometimes people’s desires for privacy
are just brushed aside because of a view that the harm in doing so is trivial. Even if this
doesn’t cause major injury, it demonstrates a lack of respect for that person. In a sense it
is saying: “I care about my interests, but I don’t care about yours.”
3. Reputation Management
Privacy enables people to manage their reputations. How we are judged by others affects
our opportunities, friendships, and overall well-being. Although we can’t have complete
control over our reputations, we must have some ability to protect our reputations from
being unfairly harmed. Protecting reputation depends on protecting against not only
falsehoods but also certain truths. Knowing private details about people’s lives doesn’t
necessarily lead to more accurate judgment about people. People judge badly, they judge
in haste, they judge out of context, they judge without hearing the whole story, and they
judge with hypocrisy. Privacy helps people protect themselves from these troublesome
judgments.
4. Maintaining Appropriate Social Boundaries
People establish boundaries from others in society. These boundaries are both physical
and informational. We need places of solitude to retreat to, places where we are free of
the gaze of others in order to relax and feel at ease. We also establish informational
boundaries, and we have an elaborate set of these boundaries for the many different
relationships we have. Privacy helps people manage these boundaries. Breaches of these
boundaries can create awkward social situations and damage our relationships. Privacy
is also helpful to reduce the social friction we encounter in life. Most people don’t want
everybody to know everything about them – hence the phrase “none of your business.”
And sometimes we don’t want to know everything about other people — hence the phrase
“too much information.”
5. Trust
In relationships, whether personal, professional, governmental, or commercial, we depend
upon trusting the other party. Breaches of confidentiality are breaches of that trust. In
professional relationships such as our relationships with doctors and lawyers, this trust is
key to maintaining candor in the relationship. Likewise, we trust other people we interact
with as well as the companies we do business with. When trust is breached in one
relationship, that could make us more reluctant to trust in other relationships.
6. Control Over One’s Life

Compiled by: Marlyn M. Bermoza, MIT

Faculty
 IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems
Chapter 4: PRIVACY

Personal data is essential to so many decisions made about us, from whether we get a
loan, a license or a job to our personal and professional reputations. Personal data is used
to determine whether we are investigated by the government, or searched at the airport,
or denied the ability to fly. Indeed, personal data affects nearly everything, including what
messages and content we see on the Internet. Without having knowledge of what data is
being used, how it is being used, the ability to correct and amend it, we are virtually
helpless in today’s world. Moreover, we are helpless without the ability to have a say in
how our data is used or the ability to object and have legitimate grievances be heard when
data uses can harm us. One of the hallmarks of freedom is having autonomy and control
over our lives, and we can’t have that if so many important decisions about us are being
made in secret without our awareness or participation.
7. Freedom of Thought and Speech
Privacy is key to freedom of thought. A watchful eye over everything we read or watch can
chill us from exploring ideas outside the mainstream. Privacy is also key to protecting
speaking unpopular messages. And privacy doesn’t just protect fringe activities. We may
want to criticize people we know to others yet not share that criticism with the world. A
person might want to explore ideas that their family or friends or colleagues dislike.
8. Freedom of Social and Political Activities
Privacy helps protect our ability to associate with other people and engage in political
activity. A key component of freedom of political association is the ability to do so with
privacy if one chooses. We protect privacy at the ballot because of the concern that failing
to do so would chill people’s voting their true conscience. Privacy of the associations and
activities that lead up to going to the voting booth matters as well, because this is how we
form and discuss our political beliefs. The watchful eye can disrupt and unduly influence
these activities.
9. Ability to Change and Have Second Chances
Many people are not static; they change and grow throughout their lives. There is a great
value in the ability to have a second chance, to be able to move beyond a mistake, to be
able to reinvent oneself. Privacy nurtures this ability. It allows people to grow and mature
without being shackled with all the foolish things they might have done in the past.
Certainly, not all misdeeds should be shielded, but some should be, because we want to
encourage and facilitate growth and improvement.
10. Not Having to Explain or Justify Oneself
An important reason why privacy matters is not having to explain or justify oneself. We
may do a lot of things which, if judged from afar by others lacking complete knowledge or
understanding, may seem odd or embarrassing or worse. It can be a heavy burden if we
constantly have to wonder how everything we do will be perceived by others and have to
be at the ready to explain.

Compiled by: Marlyn M. Bermoza, MIT

Faculty
 IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems
Chapter 4: PRIVACY

References:

• Ethics in Information Technology, Second Edition. Thomson Technology

• Types of surveillance in Criminal Investigations by Raplh Heibutzki Updated July 01, 2018
https://work.chron.com/types-surveillance-criminal-investigations-9434.html

• https://www.privacy.gov.ph/why-is-privacy-important-for-citizens/

Compiled by: Marlyn M. Bermoza, MIT

Faculty
 IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems
Chapter 4: PRIVACY

ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY

Echague, Isabela

INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Name: ________________________________________ Date: ___________________

Course/yr/sec: ________________________

Review Exercises:

1. What does the term personal information means?

2. What does the term secondary use means? Give an examples
3. What does the term re-identification means? Give an example.
4. Explain the difference between opt-in and opt-out policies for secondary uses of personal
information.
5. Give one useful application of location tracking.
6. Give one example in which release of someone’s personal information threatened the person’s
safety.
7. Describe two tools people can use to protect their privacy on the Web.

8. A company that supplies filtering software to schools (to block access by children to Web sites
with violence of pornography) sold statistical data about the Web sites visited by school children.
The data did not identify the children or individual schools. Was this privacy a violation? Why or
why not?

9. Caller ID is the feature that displays the telephone number of the caller on the telephone of the
person he or she calls. With Caller ID now routine and widely used, it might be surprising that
when the service was first made available, it was very controversial because of privacy
implications. In one of my classes, it provoked the strongest argument of any topic in the course.
a. What aspect of does Caller ID protect for the recipient of the call? What aspect of privacy does
Caller ID violate for the caller?
b. What are some good reasons why a non-business, noncriminal caller might not want his or
her number displayed?
c. What are some (actual or possible) positive and negative business uses of caller ID?

10. Prepaid cell phone service can protect privacy. One can buy a phone for cash and pay cash in
advance for service. There are no billing records, and records of calls made on the phone are not
linked to the owner. Cell phone carriers and governments in a few countries considered ending
prepaid phone service because criminals use it; law enforcement agencies could not trace them.
Should the decisions about whether to provide prepaid cell phone services be left to the service
providers or should the government ban it? If left to the companies, what policy do you think they
should adopt. Give your reasons.
 IS 212 | Professional Issues in Information Systems
Chapter 4: PRIVACY

11. Describe some uses of satellite surveillance that you think are acceptable extensions of traditional
law enforcement activities and capabilities. Describe some uses where the technology makes a
fundamental change that is not acceptable. Explain your reasoning.

12. A member of the Tampa, Florida, City Council described the camera and face-recognition system
installed in a Tampa neighborhood as a “public safety tool, no different from having a cop walking
around with a mug shot. Is he right? What are some similarities and differences?

Compiled by: Marlyn M. Bermoza, MIT

Faculty