Comment A list of ethical issues about privacy (Score 1) 885
A couple of posters have already alluded to this - the field of information privacy is full of ethical issues.
To begin with, the pedagogue might ask the students to try and define why privacy is valuable - that in itself is a tricky question. Different models could be proposed, such as universal anonymity or, by contrast, Brin's universal openness. What are the reactions? Is privacy about your one big dark secret, or about a myriad of little factoids about you that you don't mind sharing with others, but which, when collated, help large organizations (commercial / governmental / NGO / terrorist) manipulate your desires and fears?
Once the class has reached some sort of compromise argument as to why privacy might be valuable, the pedagogue could go on to try and measure that value. Is it worth money? How much? How many students have given a factoid about themselves in return for "10 e-credits"? This can branch into a discussion of public awareness of the ability of modern IT to spin numerous factoids into a detailed profile. Should people be saved from the consequences of their ignorance? What if they know but don't care, like someone who chooses to take up smoking these days with knowledge of the dangers - should the state prevent that? (Note that I didn't specify smoking tobacco - an example of disparate treatment of different types of voluntary addiction by notionally autonomous and responsible citizens).
How about lives? Should we trade security for privacy, and how much? This can develop into a political argument, in which the role of privacy in enabling resistance to oppressive government is discussed (with real world examples, of course). The idea that liberty is worth spilling blood for is generally accepted - so, connect privacy to liberty and see if the students would agree that privacy is also worth spilling blood for.
Privacy is, IMO, a good testing-ground for many ethical issues in that it touches so many facets of our lives - economic, social, psychological, political and military. The different ways in which technology raises these issues - through web bugs, ubiquitous cameras, face-recognition technology, thermal imaging and massive datawarehousing - can provide enough material for an entire semester...
To begin with, the pedagogue might ask the students to try and define why privacy is valuable - that in itself is a tricky question. Different models could be proposed, such as universal anonymity or, by contrast, Brin's universal openness. What are the reactions? Is privacy about your one big dark secret, or about a myriad of little factoids about you that you don't mind sharing with others, but which, when collated, help large organizations (commercial / governmental / NGO / terrorist) manipulate your desires and fears?
Once the class has reached some sort of compromise argument as to why privacy might be valuable, the pedagogue could go on to try and measure that value. Is it worth money? How much? How many students have given a factoid about themselves in return for "10 e-credits"? This can branch into a discussion of public awareness of the ability of modern IT to spin numerous factoids into a detailed profile. Should people be saved from the consequences of their ignorance? What if they know but don't care, like someone who chooses to take up smoking these days with knowledge of the dangers - should the state prevent that? (Note that I didn't specify smoking tobacco - an example of disparate treatment of different types of voluntary addiction by notionally autonomous and responsible citizens).
How about lives? Should we trade security for privacy, and how much? This can develop into a political argument, in which the role of privacy in enabling resistance to oppressive government is discussed (with real world examples, of course). The idea that liberty is worth spilling blood for is generally accepted - so, connect privacy to liberty and see if the students would agree that privacy is also worth spilling blood for.
Privacy is, IMO, a good testing-ground for many ethical issues in that it touches so many facets of our lives - economic, social, psychological, political and military. The different ways in which technology raises these issues - through web bugs, ubiquitous cameras, face-recognition technology, thermal imaging and massive datawarehousing - can provide enough material for an entire semester...
