ChristineOtto's Journal

Course-related work:

• read news articles on the Radar ("As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets" and "House Passes Bill Preserving F.B.I. Surveillance Powers")
• listened to March 25 class

Reflection:

• It was highly interesting to read and hear about increased surveillance employed by many countries as a means to combat COVID-19. I had previously already done some research on it as I was considering making it the topic of my second paper. The justification of surveillance makes me feel uneasy even though I recognize the importance of curbing the transmission of the virus. Besides the question of proportionality between the pursued benefit of this increased surveillance and its risks/violations of civil liberties, I did not consider the risk of these measures outlasting the epidemic and opening the door to more invasive surveillance later.
• The 6th Amendment in the 21th century illustrates the problem of the government knowing too much about its citizens and of information asymmetries. The selection of an impartial jury seems to be compromised by this supreme knowledge of the state (due to modern technology, social media and surveillance). You emphasized the extraordinary significance of the selection of the jury in a criminal trial. As someone coming from a jurisdiction without jury trials I wonder whether this means that it would be fairer to abolish jury trials or how else the risk of impartiality of the jury could be minimized. You mentioned that in order to combat information asymmetries the defense has to be shown everything that the government knows. However, this does not solve the issue of grave infringements of privacy.

Thanks for these thoughts. We'll talk more about your first point in the next weeks. I hope my second talk on PartSix, which was built around your insight here, was helpful. I'm going to return to the idea of privacy-positive government, not merely in the area of criminal justice, in Part Nine.

April 1 class:

At the moment it seems to be difficult not to talk about the corono virus. It largely influences our days - whether through lockdowns imposed in most coutries, online classes at for students, etc. It is dominating people's thoughts and interactions. However, on top of that an associated thought that is now constantly present for is the issue of privacy concerns amplified by the current situation. Despite having to socially isolate (which would usually mean more privacy) privacy is decreasing as we are to a large degree reliant on technology to keep in contact with friends, family and colleagues. And as can be seen by the news reporting on Zoom our privacy is not guaranteed by such tools. For most classes students are expected to attend classes over Zoom and the universtiy and most professors have not adequately addressed privacy concerns. As you have pointedly said Zoom depicts an astaunding assault upon educational privacy and freedom of thought. It is incomprehensible to me why the university chose to spend so much money on an insecure tool when there are more secure and free tools suchs as Jitsi. This morning I've heard in the news that Austria is considering to use a voluntary tracking app. The idea behind making the app voluntary is clear and seems at the first thought to be sensible. Nevertheless, something irritated me even about a voluntary tracking app. I fear that you don't have to make the app obligatory to pressure and shame people into installing it ("for the greater good"). In general, I am currently tackling the challenge of trying to be less easily surveilled and to protect my privacy while also continuing to do my work for university and not becoming a recluse.

Looking at the 6th Amendment in the 21th century an important question is whether the Constitution should be adjusted to reflect today's technological capabilities. As you have said the Bill of Rights is insufficient for future society which is to be expected as it was written in the 18th century. It should reflect and protect the citizen from the information asymmetry - a thought that is already rudimentally reflected in the 6th Amendment which seeks to equalize information access but is not oriented towards the modern technological situation.

April 8 class:

When writing my first paper for this class I was confronted with the question whether there is a right to privacy in the US constitution and where it can be found. It seemed odd to me that such an important right is not explicitly regulated. Last week, I have also been thinking about whether the Constitution should be adjusted to reflect todays technological capabilities. This week's class has fittingly addressed these questions by talking about constitutional creation and the non-exclusive nature and non-explicity of the 9th Amendment rendering the US Constitution flexible and pliable.

Privacy is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution but forms as a retained right that has been recognized in various US Supreme Court judgements a constitutional right under the 9th Amendment. A right that as you have said is "as judiciable as enumerated rights in the Constitution." However, that is difficult to fully understand for me: As the rights in the 9th Amendment are not enumerated and are developed by jurisprudence how can there be certainty which rights exist and how the Supreme Court will decide? Is it not in a way arbitrary to rely on a court to such a high degree?

April 15 class:

I had some difficulties following this week's class which is probably due to my slim knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and its history.

Something that I'm really enjoying are the tech projects. As a not technically well-versed person it took me a while to figure out how to complete these projects but now it seems to be quite simple. I would love to learn more about how to use technology to keep my data private. I am hoping to secure the new laptop I've recently ordered as well as possible and to be more aware of and proactive regarding privacy issues in the future. Do you have any recommendations on how to learn more about how to secure data and to use technology in a more private way? Are there going to be more tech projects?

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