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Individual Privacy: A Social Construction?
Introduction | |
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< | In order to change the massive trend of disappearing privacy, many aspects of our daily lives must change. However, before we begin to discuss the actual implementations of privacy protections, we must deal with the ideals that have led to the current situation. Specifically, the ultimate ideal of individuality plays a central role. While it is true that we are all biologically unique, the consequences of a blind adherence to this belief of true individuality are dire from a privacy standpoint. We are social animals, and are defined by the people around us. The sooner this idea is accepted, the sooner we can more accurately assess the dangers to our privacy. This paper will discuss a few of the deductions arising from the individuality ideal, how they obfuscate the privacy concerns every individual should have, and why a social-creature view is required. | >
> | In order to change the massive trend of disappearing privacy, many aspects of our daily lives must change. However, before we begin to discuss the actual implementations of privacy protections, we must deal with the ideals that have led to the current situation. The ultimate ideal of individuality plays a central role. While it is true that we are all biologically unique, the consequences of a blind adherence to this belief of true individuality are dire from a privacy standpoint. We are social animals, and are defined by the people around us. The sooner this idea is accepted, the sooner we can more accurately assess the dangers to our privacy. This paper will discuss a few of the deductions arising from the individuality ideal, how they obfuscate the privacy concerns every individual should have, and why a social-creature view is required. | | | Because I am an individual I am unique | |
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< | Individualism has played an enormous role in American history. From the American dream of the self-made man to the "Be All You Can Be" army slogan, the emphasis has always been on "you." While we are by definition unique, both biologically and environmentally (no two people have ever been exposed to the exact same experiences), this uniqueness is not as drastic as people assume.
The privacy concern that enters here is an assumption that because we are all unique, no one can ever truly "know" us. Thus, we are willing to let the world into our life through sites such as Facebook, as that is only what "we" want others to see. The belief is that your uniqueness is still protected because not only is your Facebook profile not a full representation of you, but also that it would be impossible for anyone to know more than you want them to know. This reasoning is flawed for multiple reasons, but two very important interrelated misconceptions underlie the flaws: 1) information about others cannot elucidate my individual characteristics, and 2) individuals are not predictable. These misconceptions seem to arise from the following logic: because no person is exactly the same as me, then no information about others can possibly reveal anything about me; and because every person is uniquely different, no person is predictable.
Information about others does not reflect anything about me
At a basic level, many people assume that information they never disclose is therefore protected. This is clearly not true. To begin, not only must you not disclose the information, but everyone else who has the information also must not disclose it. This has come into the conscious minds of job applicants all over. Not only must you monitor what you post of yourself, but also what others post of you. Assuming that neither you nor anyone else has disclosed the information, does that make it secure? Once again, the answer is no.
In order to protect the privacy of your information it is necessary that others protect that information about themselves. A useful example is the recent discussion of the dangers of President Obama having a Blackberry. Should an interested party wish to find out which Blackberry was the President's, and thereby have knowledge of his whereabouts, that party would only need to deduce it from accessible information about others. For instance, if everyone in the White House kept the same phones, it would be easy to deduce which phone belonged to the President over a matter of time based on traffic in and out of the White House. _See_ Obama phone article. Anonymity in such a situation is only possible if a large enough group within the White House and the President, changed their phones frequently.
While this is an extreme example of what can be gleaned from knowing information about others, the point is very important. Indirectly gained knowledge is just as informative as that gained directly, and knowledge about each one of us is indirectly provided by others if they are not as concerned with privacy as we are. | >
> | Individualism has played an enormous role in American history. From the American dream of the self-made man to the "Be All You Can Be" army slogan, the emphasis has always been on "you." While we are by definition unique, both biologically and environmentally (no two people have ever been exposed to the exact same experiences), this uniqueness is not as drastic as people assume. The privacy concern that enters here is an assumption that because we are all unique, no one can ever truly "know" us. Thus, we are willing to let the world into our life through sites such as Facebook, as that is only what "we" want others to see. The belief is that your uniqueness is still protected because not only is your Facebook profile not a full representation of you, but also that it would be impossible for anyone to know more than you want them to know. This reasoning is flawed. The major misconception underlying this flaw is that individuals are not predictable. Because individuals in fact are predictable, information regarding that individual's past action becomes relevant, and additionally the past actions of others becomes invaluable as a tool to make these predictions. This misconception seems to arise from the following logic: because every person is uniquely different, no person is predictable; and because no person is predictable, no information about others can be used to form predictions about anyone else. | | | Because I am unique I am unpredictable | |
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< | This unpredictability belief seems to stem from the idea that no person ever always knows either what he is going to do, or why he is going to do it. If this is the case, could someone else possibly know this? The answer is yes, and we fail to see that because we do not recognize the unconscious patterns which we all follow. Take buying a new piece of technology as an example. How much research do you normally put into this? How long from the time you start looking into the technology does it take you to buy? These factors and many more are easily recordable based on your website visitation patterns and Google searches. Could someone influence your decision on what piece of technology to buy (or where you buy it from) by having access to this information? If you are typically an impulse buyer and Google returns an advertisement for a "One-day Sale," might you buy that item even if the "One-day Sale" price is actually more expensive than it would normally be?
This does not seem a very dangerous occurrence at first, after all you are only spending some extra money, but what does this say about your autonomy? If others can strongly influence your behavior through this information, it is not a leap to say you are not in complete control of your actions. Where the patterns of your behavior are observable, what you do next can be simply an issue of steering by others. | >
> | This unpredictability belief seems to stem from the idea that no person ever always knows either what he is going to do, or why he is going to do it. If this is the case, could someone else possibly know this? The answer is yes, and we fail to see that because we do not recognize the unconscious patterns which we all follow. Take buying a new piece of technology as an example. How much research do you normally put into this? How long from the time you start looking into the technology does it take you to buy? These factors and many more are easily recordable based on your website visitation patterns and Google searches. Could someone influence your decision on what piece of technology to buy (or where you buy it from) by having access to this information? If you are typically an impulse buyer and Google returns an advertisement for a "One-day Sale," might you buy that item even if the "One-day Sale" price is actually more expensive than it would normally be? This does not seem a very dangerous occurrence at first, after all you are only spending some extra money, but what does this say about your autonomy? If others can strongly influence your behavior through this information, it is not a leap to say you are not in complete control of your actions. Where the patterns of your behavior are observable, what you do next can be simply an issue of steering by others. This becomes even more dangerous once we accept that information about others makes our behavior patterns even clearer. | | | | |
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> | Because everyone is unpredictable, no information about others can be used to make predictions about me
While this is the logical following from a belief that everyone is unpredictable, we must now consider the consequences of removing that erroneous foundational belief. If people are predictable, how useful is the information data-miners have about others? In the end, it may actually be more valuable than information about the individual. The entire structuring of generalized patterns relies upon the gathering of multiple data sets. Just as no experiment based on one data set can be trusted, patterns are established by analyzing multiple sets of actions. This method is then further refined by comparing an individual's behavior with the behavior of his closest acquaintances (i.e. friends and family). An individual is a combination of genetics and environment, and to see the way the people that made up that environment act moves one step closer to accurately predicting the actions of the individual. It is therefore through the information about others that the entire prediction structure is built, and then further perfected based on an the personal patterns of the individual as well as those of his closest relations. | | | Conclusion
The conundrum of the individuality ideal is the always present rebuttal to the entire argument above: "So what? I am not important enough for anyone to care about me." Yet this is precisely the reason why we need to reconsider our "individuality." Maybe you are not important enough for anyone to care about any of these things for you specifically. Nevertheless, because you are part of the society that everyone lives in, information about you is used to invade the privacy of others. In other words, in order for any of our privacy to be protected, all of our privacy must be protected. | | | failures of secrecy and anonymity. | |
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Ted,
Thank you for the comments. Looking back on this paper, I was too involved with desire to talk about the Obama phone issue to accept that it really did not fit in with the rest of this paper. I tried to make this rendition more focused by bringing it back to one underlying flaw (that of unpredictability) and from there branching out into why the social nature of individuals matters. I apologize for the delay in responding to your insight. It was very helpful in making me realize there were too many interwoven aspects at the start, and that in order to improve I needed to simplify the model of explanation.
-- MattDavisRatner - 12 May 2009 | | |
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