Privacy Its Meaning and Value Adam D Moore

Privacy: Its Meaning and Value Adam D. Moore, Ph. D. Information School Ph. D. Program Chair University of Washington Box 352840 Mary Gates Hall, Ste 370 Seattle, WA 98195 -2840

Defining Privacy o How would you define “privacy? ” o Can there be ‘privacy’ in public places? o Is there anything wrong with video-voyeurism?

Defining Privacy o Locational privacy -- a right to control access to and uses of one’s body, specific locations, etc. n o Could also be called “Physical Privacy” or “Spatial Privacy” Informational privacy – a right to control access to and uses of personal information

Other Definitions of Privacy o o o Warren and Brandeis privacy is "the right to be let alone" Pound and Freund have defined privacy in terms of an extension of personality or personhood privacy consists of a form of autonomy over personal matters W. Parent – “Privacy is the condition of not having undocumented personal knowledge about one possessed by others. ” De. Cew: what is of “legitimate concern of others”

Legal Conceptions of Privacy – Prosser’s Four Torts o Intrusion: Intruding (physically or otherwise) upon the solitude of another in a highly offensive manner. For example, a woman sick in the hospital with a rare disease refuses a reporter's request for a photograph and interview. The reporter photographs her anyway, over her objection. o Private facts: Publicizing highly offensive private information about someone which is not of legitimate concern to the public. For example, photographs of an undistinguished and wholly private hardware merchant carrying on an adulterous affair in a hotel room are published in a magazine.

Prosser’s Torts o False light: Publicizing a highly offensive and false impression of another. For example, a taxi driver's photograph is used to illustrate a newspaper article on cabdrivers who cheat the public when the driver in the photo is not, in fact, a cheat. o Appropriation: Using another's name or likeness for some advantage without the other's consent. For example, a photograph of a famous actress is used without her consent to advertise a product

Privacy as Property? o If property rights are essentially about control and privacy rights are as well, then maybe privacy rights are simply a special form of property rights. o Is there a connection between privacy rights and IP rights? . . . for those of you who reject IP rights…do you also have to reject privacy rights?

Normative v. Non-normative Definitions o There are two distinctions that have been widely discussed related to defining privacy. o A descriptive or non-normative account describes a state or condition where privacy obtains. An example would be Parent’s definition, "Privacy is the condition of not having undocumented personal knowledge about one possessed by others"

Normative v. Non-normative Definitions o A normative account, on the other hand, makes references to moral obligations or claims. For example when De. Cew talks about what is of “legitimate concern of others” she includes ethical considerations. n E. G. …Privacy = a right to control access to and uses of places, locations and personal information

Reductionist v. Non-reductionist Definitions o Reductionists argue that privacy is derived from other rights such as life, liberty, and property rights – there is no overarching concept of privacy but rather several distinct core notions that have been lumped together. o The non-reductionist views privacy as related to, but distinct from, other rights or concepts.

Cases: testing definitions o What is the point of testing different definitions of privacy with different cases? 1. 2. 3. 4. On pain of irrationality – you must treat similar cases similarly The principle of relevant difference – if two cases are accorded different moral statuses, they must differ in some other morally relevant respect. Doing violence to common usage… Linking definitions to moral value/well-being – what good is a definition if it is useless…

Cases: testing definitions The Loud Fight o Suppose Fred and Ginger are having a fight – shouting at each other with the windows open so that anyone on the street can hear. Does someone walking by, who stops to listen, violate a privacy right? n Would a privacy right be violated if someone were to record Fred and Ginger’s fight and then broadcast the recording?

Cases: The Quiet Fight o Suppose that Fred and Ginger are having a fight – shouting at each other although the windows are closed and they have taken precautions to make sure that others cannot hear them. Suppose someone trains an amplifier on Fred and Ginger’s house and listens to them. Does this person violate a privacy right?

Cases: The Accidentally Amplified Quiet Fight o Our married couple, Fred and Ginger, are having another quiet fight behind closed doors. But this time an unanticipated gust of wind sweeps through the house, knocking down the front door, carrying and amplifying the couple’s voices so that Stuart, who is washing his car in his driveway across the street, hears at least some of what Fred and Ginger have been saying.

Cases: The Pornographic Picture o Hugh owns a pornographic picture and keeps it locked in his wall safe – so that no one can see it or even know that he owns it. Larry wants to see the picture and trains his x-ray device on the wall safe to look in. Does Larry violate Hugh’s right to privacy? n Suppose that Hugh does not own the safe, picture, or apartment he is in…does this change anything?

Cases: The Subway Map o Karl takes a subway map off of a public display and hides it in his pocket. Does someone who looks at the map in Karl’s pocket with an X-ray device violate Karl’s privacy rights?

Cases: o Sensitive Information Assault: suppose a stranger stops you at a party and begins telling about intimate personal information and problems he is having. Is your privacy violated? o Loud Stinky Neighbors: your neighbors make a terrible racket all the time – or they cook foul smelling meals… Do your neighbors violate your privacy?

The Value of Privacy o Claim: Privacy rights are necessary for human well-being or flourishing o The Eudaimonist holds that the what has intrinsic value is wellbeing and that this is the only thing with intrinsic value. Well-being or flourishing is to be distinguished from pleasure in ways that Eudaimonists disagree about. Typically, it is taken to involve not merely sensations but selfdevelopment, a sense of self-worth, etc.

Value Theory The Structure of Value — How values relate to each other. A. Intrinsic Value: A thing has intrinsic value if it is valuable in itself‑-apart from any other considerations, including considerations of its effects. (unconditional value) B. Extrinsic Value: A thing has extrinsic value in virtue of its capacity to produce something of value‑-ultimately, something of intrinsic value. (All chains of extrinsic value terminate in something of intrinsic value. ) What has intrinsic value for the Eudaimonist?

Value Theory The Grounds of Value — Where does moral value come from? A. Objective Value: the view that values are not the products of our affections. Pleasure is not valuable because you desire it. Pleasure has objective value independent of your desires. B. Subjective Value: designates the view that values are the products of our affections. Value comes into existence by being conferred upon an otherwise valueless state of affairs, and it is conferred by our preferences, desires, or commitments. Eudaimonism gives an objective account of value

Non-Human Animals and Territory o Alan Westin in Privacy and Freedom notes, “One basic finding of animal studies is that virtually all animals seek periods of individual seclusion. . . This is usually described as the tendency toward territoriality, in which an organism lays private claim to an area of land, water, or air and defends it against intrusion by members of its own species. ”

Territory and Space o More important for our purposes are the ecological studies demonstrating that the lack of private space due to overpopulation and the like will threaten survival o Flyger, and Davis' study of a herd of Sika deer illustrates the point. “Mortality evidently resulted from shock following a sever metabolic disturbance, probably as a result of prolonged andrenocortical hyperactivity, judging from the historical material. There was no evidence of infection, starvation, or other obvious cause to explain the mass mortality”

Rats! o Calhoun notes that experiments with rats and spacing in cages show that a certain level of separation is necessary for the species. The lack of separation leads to the disruption of social relationships and increases of disease, high blood pressure, and heart failure…. etc.

Humans and Separation: Cultural Aspects of Privacy o o o One could argue that privacy is a cultural phenomena and its form or content depends on customs and social practices Independent of society – when we are by ourselves – there is no need for privacy. Thus there is nothing inherent in human nature that makes privacy valuable for all humans. This view is shown to be suspect as soon as it is admitted that we are, by nature, social animals.

Cultural Aspects of Privacy: Tikopia, Tlingit, Java o Of the thousands of cultures studied there a rare few that appear to contain no privacy. o These are important cases because individuals in such societies may flourish in the absence of privacy – if true, we will have found a telling counterexample to the claim that privacy is necessary for human flourishing.

The Moral Value of Privacy o Westin notes that these cases and others like them do not “prove that there are no universal needs for privacy and no universal processes for adjusting the values of privacy, disclosure, and surveillance within each society. ” o The Java still have bathing enclosures, while the Tinglets and Tikopia hide behind psychological walls to ensure private domains. Like viewing a striper we may see everything and nothing at all of the real person. Moreover, in each of these cultures there are time restrictions on access – for example, visiting someone in the middle of the night would be typically prohibited.

The Moral Value of Privacy o Cultural universals have been found in every society that has been systematically studied. o Based on the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University, Westin argues that there aspects of privacy found in every society privacy is a cultural universal.

Schwartz: Psychology and Privacy o Schwartz -- privacy is group preserving, maintains status divisions, allows for deviation, and sustains social establishments. o Association rituals and disassociation rituals are essential for good relations. . . having “good fences” is necessary for having “good neighbors. ” n Case: pointing your digital camera at your neighbor’s house?

Schwartz: Psychology and Privacy o Doors, hallways, fences, window blinds, walls, and the like each serve to separate individuals at appropriate times from their peers. o Expanding our domain of privacy is part of growing up and becoming an adult o One could view childhood development as a process of building the walls of privacy – it is a process of marking out boundaries around the self and controlling access. o Erecting, guarding, and restricting access is a natural part of the maturing process. o At the end of life – interestingly enough – the walls of privacy are, in some cases, taken down.

Privacy within the Family o o Is there privacy within family’s? What of the view that “family members should have nothing to hide? ” Childhood development n n n two-way information sharing practices = good Monitoring using extreme rule sets = bad Covert monitoring = bad

Privacy as a Relational Norm o While privacy may be a cultural universal necessary for the proper functioning of human beings, its form is culturally dependent. o The kinds of privacy rules found in different cultures will be dependent on a host of variables including climate, religion, technological advancement, and political arrangements. The forms privacy protections are relative to culture, places, region – the need is not.

Access Control and Health Disorders o Edward Hall noted a link between a lack of privacy and psychological and physical disorders in humans and nonhuman animals. o The disorders of Calhoun's overcrowded rats bear a striking resemblance to. . . Americans who live in densely packed urban conditions. . . Chombart de Lauwe has gathered data on French worker's families and has demonstrated a statistical relationship between crowded living conditions and physical and social pathology. o In Manhattan Srole et al. showed that only 18% of the representative sample were free of emotional disorders while 23% were seriously disturbed or incapacitated

Access Control and Health Disorders o Overcrowding in prisons has been linked to violence depression suicide psychological disorders and recidivism , [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] . [5] [1] E. I. Megargee, “The Association of Population Density Reduced Space and Uncomfortable Temperatures with Misconduct in a Prison Community, ” The American Journal of Community Psychology 5 (1977): 289 -298 and F. Porporino and K. Dudley, An Analysis of the Effects of Overcrowding in Canadian Penitentiaries (1984) Ottawa, Ontario: Research Division, Programs Branch, Solicitor General of Canada. [2] V. Cox, P. Paulus, and G. Mc. Cain, G. “Prison Crowding Research: The Relevance of Prison Housing Standards and a General Approach Regarding Crowding Phenomena, ” American Psychologist 39 (1984): 1148 -1160. [3] G. Mc. Cain, V. Cox, and P. Paulus, “The Effect of Prison Crowding on Inmate Behavior, ” Washington D. C. : U. S. Department of Justice (1980). [4] P. Paulus, V. Cox, and G. Mc. Cain, “Death Rates, Psychiatric Commitments, Blood Pressure and Perceived Crowding as a Function of Institutional Crowding, ” Environmental Psychology and Nonverbal Behaviour 3 (1978): 107 -116. [5] D. Farrington and C. Nuttal, “Prison Size, Overcrowding, Prison Violence and Recidivism, ” Journal of Criminal Justice 8 (1980): 221 -231.

Access Control and Health Disorders o Fuller et al have convincingly established that household crowding has “strong and consistent detrimental effects on psychological well-being. ”[1] o Coupled with the substantial body of research documenting the causal relationship between psychological well-being and health we arrive at a seemingly unavoidable conclusion. [2] [1] T. D. Fuller, et al. "Chronic Stress and Psychological Well-being: Evidence from Thailand on Household Crowding, " Social Science Medicine, 42 (1996): 278. [2] S. V. Kasl, “Stress and Health, ” Annual Review of Public Health, L. Breslow, J. Fielding, and L. Lave eds. (1984): 319 and A. Booth and J. Cowell, “Crowding and Health, ” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 17 (1976): 204, cited in Theodore D. Fuller, et al. "Chronic Stress and Psychological Well-Being: Evidence from Thailand on Household Crowding, " Social Science Medicine, 42 (1996): 279.

Access Control and Health Disorders o While Fuller and his colleagues studied crowding in Thailand the conclusions fit nicely with results from an earlier study on crowding in Chicago. [1] W. R. Grove and M. Hughes, Overcrowding in the Household (New York: Academic Press, 1983).

Conclusion o Given all of this, one can, with great confidence claim that privacy is valuable for beings like us. The ability to regulate access to our bodies, capacities, and powers and to sensitive personal information is an essential part of human flourishing or well-being.