Issues involving our personal privacy are growing rapidly and affect our day-to-day lives more than you might think. It's about time the federal government stepped up to the plate on these issues.
What is privacy? When most of us think about privacy, if we do at all, we think about closed doors and drawn window shades or hiding our actions from others. We must change the way we think about privacy. Perhaps we need a better word.
If anything, privacy is more about the right to remain anonymous. It's the right to know we are not being watched as we walk down the street or attend a public meeting. It's the right to know that facts about our personal lives are revealed only as we decide to release them and that the facts are correct. Privacy is about massive databases, identity theft, and the access to information.
Think about privacy like this: is there information in a database somewhere that you wouldn't want everyone to look through? Not because you have something to hide, but because it's simply private information.
Take, for example, your financial information, your medical records, or your buying patterns. What about someone looking over the books you have read at the library or the books you buy at a store or online. What about the videos you rent? If that information is in a database, it can be accessed. What prevents just anyone from accessing that information? When you register your software, fill out a credit report, or log on to a Web site, you are providing information to someone else. How will they use that information? That is privacy.
How do you feel about closed circuit cameras in public areas that record where you go and whom you meet? Do you mind if this information is recorded on tape and then stored in a database for years?
What about a tool that can read every e-mail that is sent across the Internet (encrypted or not)? That is privacy. What will this information be used for? Perhaps it will be used to place a suspect at the scene of a crime (for example, an ATM camera and the Oklahoma City bombing). Perhaps it will be used to gather information on terrorist groups (for example, Carnivore, now DSC 1000, and the World Trade Center bombing). There are instances where information about the public can be used to benefit society. But information about the public can also be used to destroy personal freedom and privacy. That is why we need strong laws in place to protect us from the misuse of privacy information.
When the Iron Curtain fell, we learned of massive installations of surveillance cameras that were established by the secret police in Prague. The police were viewing public meetings and street traffic to control their citizens. Many cities in the US now videotape public streets as a crime deterrent. How will those tapes be used in the future? Are you in one of those tapes? Do you care? If you think something like that could never happen here, guess what would have happened if this technology were available during the Vietnam War or World War II? How do you think it might have been used against Japanese descendants in the United States?
The more data that is accumulated about you, the less privacy, and ultimately, the less personal freedom you have, and information is being gathered on you much faster than you think. Privacy is not an issue of something to hide; it's an issue of personal information. We should have the right to our privacy and to release information about our lives as we see fit. Our laws should protect that right.
Technology is not neutral. Technology makes it possible to gather personal information about each of us in a way that was never possible before. Until we focus on privacy issues and put pressure on our elected officials, we will never pass the laws to protect our privacy. The appointment of Dan Collins is a step in the right direction. We could use a few more.
E. Scott Wright, CISSP, CCP is director of Information Security Services and HIPAA National Practice executive for Netplex, a leading provider of business strategy, technology, user experience, IT security solutions and contingency planning services.
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