Transcript Chapter Four Privacy in Cyberspace

Chapter Four
Privacy in Cyberspace
“Data Mining and Privacy”, Joseph S.
Fulda
and
“Workplace Surveillance, Privacy,
and Distributive Justice”, Lucas D.
Introna
Data Mining and Privacy Joseph Fulda
• Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
• When we query a DB we get back database
records - a tuple of fields
• The information returned from the DB is
explicit stored info
• Knowledge discovery using data mining
techniques is different
– What is sought and extracted from the data is
not explicit in the DB
Knowledge Discovery and Data
Mining
• The info does not exist a priori in the DB
• The implicit patterns found in the data can
be used for descriptive or predictive
purposes
• Data Mining refers to the process of
discovering such patterns
Work Performed on the Patterns
• Can classify data into preexisting categories
• cluster data by mapping them into categories created
during data analysis and determined by the data
• Provide a summary of the data, which is useful in a sense
that the raw data are not;
• Describe dependencies between variables;
• Find links between data fields;
• Use regression to predict future values of data; and
• Model sequential patterns in the data that may indicate
revealing trends
Basic Data Mining
• Most easily accomplished when data are highly structured
and available in many different forms in data warehouses
• The Data Warehouse Contains:
– Integrated data allows data to be compared and
contrasted in different formats - does away with need
for data cleansing
– both detailed and summarized data
• Allows patterns to be detected at granular and higher
order levels
– Historical data - mining this can yield cyclic and
seasonal patterns
– Metadata - data about the context of the data
The Issues
• Current concerns about data mining have to
do more with knowledge discovery
• Traditionally, in databases we refer to raw
data and information
• Information is data that has been
transformed into some useful form
• Author introduces “knowledge” as a
semantics part that gives the data meaning
Old days vs New ways
• Old legal rule that anything put by a person
in the public domain (by purchasing an item
in public place) is not legally protected
– This worked well when data was not mined to
produce classifications, clustering, summaries,
profiles, dependencies, etc.
• Unsettling example
– Database of file from a bank video cameras at
an ATM shows pregnant woman and her ATM
card linked in DB to her address and triggers an
The Problems
• The pregnancy and address by themselves
are not private
– Can be learned by being out in public
• The disturbing fact is the linkage of the two
• It seems that it is possible for data that do
not in themselves deserve legal protection
to contain implicit knowledge that does
deserve legal protection
The Desired Balance
• What balance should be struck between the
freedom to use whatever knowledge one has
access to to further one’s ends and the
freedom not to have one’s personal data
mined into knowledge that will be used as a
means to someone else’s ends
Analysis
• He provides three short scenarios
demonstrating a form of data mining w/o
use of technology (p473 and 474) read?
– a) visitor to your residence looks through stack
of magazines
– b) A personal article of author’s published
articles
– c) Guest going through stack of mail
• End of this Article
Workplace Surveillance, Privacy,
and Distributive Justice
• Lucas D. Introna
• Remember: Look at both sides of the issue the employee and the employer!
Introduction
• Surveillance is a popular topic in today’s society
• This paper focuses on workplace surveillance
• Some Data
– 45% of major U.S. firms record and review employee
communications and activities on the job
– Includes phone calls, e-mail, and computer files
– In a MacWorld survey of 301 businesses, 22% of them
have searched employee computer files, voice mail,
e-mail, or other networking communications
– Percentage jumps to 30% for businesses w/
1,000 or more employees
More Data
• These formal surveys most likely underestimate what is
actually done in practice
• Most organizations will not publicize the degree to which
they engage in systematic monitoring
• Surveillance often functions as a resource for the execution
of power, and power is most effective when it hides itself
• He predicts that vast majority of companies engage in
anything from isolated incidents of specific monitoring to
large-scale systematic monitoring
Purpose
• Author’s purpose is that the real issue of
workplace surveillance is justice as fairness
• The inherent political possibilities of
surveillance concerns employees and they
simply do not trust the interested gaze of
management
• Will also discuss Rawls’ theory of justice to
establish a framework for distributing the
rights of privacy and transparency between
Resisting Workplace Surveillance
• Two trends influence the discussion of
workplace surveillance
• a) the increasing challenges by the
employees of their conditions of work,
especially the normalising practices of
discipline
• b) the rapid development of surveillance
technology that created unprecedented
possibilities for comprehensive surveillance
The New Technology
• Because of modern technology, surveillance
became less overt and more diffused
• Even built into the very machinery and processes
of production
– Modern systems not only automate but also
“informate”
– This increasingly silent and diffused potential
of surveillance began to concern policy makers,
unions, etc
– However, the balance of power is with the
employer
Legalities
• In U.S., right of employer to conduct workplace
surveillance to protect employer’s interest to organize
work, select technology, set production standards, and
manage the use of facilities and other resources is
recognized by law
• There is no legal obligation on employees to ensure that
monitoring be fair, that jobs be well designed, or that
employees be consulted about work standards, except
when these points are addressed in union contracts
Legal (2)
• Since less than 20% of U.S. work force is
unionized, the decisions about work
monitoring are made solely at the discretion
of the employers
• The Electronic Communications Privacy
Act (ECPA-1986) does not guarantee a right
to e-mail privacy in the workplace because
of three exceptions (he covers 2)
Business and Consent Exceptions
• Business extension or ordinary course of business
exception allows the employer to monitor any
communications using communications technology
supplied to the employee in the ordinary course of business
for use in conducting the ordinary course of business
(telephone/e-mail acct)
• The consent exception allows monitoring in those cases
where prior consent has been obtained. Implied consent is
also recognized by law
– Eg, employers who notify employees that their
telephone conversations or e-mail is likely to be
monitored will have the implied consent of their
employees
The Climate
• Employer could easily monitor all aspects of work and
communications (on equipment made available for
ordinary business use) as long as employer explicitly
communicates policy that monitoring can take place and
employer can justify it for a valid business purpose
• In U.S. and many other countries, the climate is heavily
biased in favor of the employer
• Workplace monitoring is largely viewed as a right of
employers w/ burden of proof on employees to show that it
is invasive, unfair, or stressful
• This is not likely to be changed in near future
How Widespread is Surveillance?
• Now as wide as one might suspect
• There is not sufficient evidence to suggest surveillance of
individuals would lead to long term productivity
improvements
• Productivity is not merely a matter of surveillance, but
rather an emerging element of a system designed for
productivity as a whole
• Gathered evidence also pointing to surveillance of
individuals causing stress, a lost sense of dignity, and a
general environment of mistrust
– In this environment, employees tend to act out their
employer’s expectations of them thus reducing the
benefits of surveillance
Surveillance for the Good?
• At times employees can benefit from surveillance
• Use of surveillance data for performance
assessment can result in a more equitable
treatment of employees
• Can provide evidence to prevent unfair allocation
of blame
• Boss can see through the collected data someone
who is working extra hours, etc
Privacy as a Matter of Justice
• Employees are concerned by the explicit and
implicit choices that employers make, causes
employees to be mistrustful
• They are concerned that these choices may only
reflect the interests of the employer
• They are concerned that employer will only have
part of the picture
• They are concerned that employers will apply
inappropritae values when judging this “part of the
picture”
Human Entanglements
• We are entangled and immersed in our values and
beliefs to the point that they are there as part of
our background that we do not explicitly attend to
in making judgements
• We are immersed, engrossed, and entangled in our
world in ways that would not normally make us
explicitly attend to the particular facts, values, and
interests that we draw upon in making particular
judgements
So,
• It is the very political possibilities of surveillance,
in the data selected, the values applied, the interest
served, and the implicit and entangled nature of
the judgement process, which makes employees -and persons in general -- have a default position of
mistrust rather than trust in ‘exposing’ themselves.
Johnson’s Definition of Privacy
• The right to the “freedom from the judgement of
others.”
• The U.S. Congress’ Office of Technology
Assessment (OTA) report in 1987 argued that the
issue of fairness is the most central issue of
workplace monitoring
Stepping Back to See
• The issue of workplace privacy is not merely a
matter of ‘bad’ employees wanting to hide their
unscrupulous behavior behind a call for privacy
(certainly the case at times)
• Rather, it is a legitimate concern for justice in a
context in which teh employees are, for the most
part, in a relationship of severe power asymmetry
Privacy, Surveillance, and
Distributive Justice
• omit this section and to the end of the paper