PRIVACY IN CYBERSPACE


Discussion Questions

  • Are you optimistic about the possibility of constructing checks and balances against the political and commercial forces that seek to centralize data after September 11? Do the “self-help” measures discussed here solve users’ online privacy dilemmas? The assignments identify a number of industry efforts designed to come to terms with the online privacy concerns manifested by numerous privacy groups. Do TRUSTe and the Network Advertising Initiative offer constructive alternatives to the position of many privacy groups that no data should be collected beyond transactional data, and that data should be destroyed as soon as possible? Which of these industry self-regulatory mesaures, if any, are examples of technologies that effectively account for consumer’s privacy rights?
  • Does the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) offer a reasonable alternative to the present situation of lack of user choice? Does P3P adequately protect user privacy?
  • Invasive technologies and technologies that protect privacy sometimes seem to operate in leap-frog fashion (see Roger Clarke’s discussion of “counter-PITs” in his essay). When a technology develops that seems to threaten privacy (e.g., cookies), other users develop counter-measures (e.g., cookie eaters). Should cyberspace users defer to the technologists to develop privacy protection devices? Or, should legislatures and courts be involved in setting privacy protection measures?
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