Showing papers on "Information privacy published in 1971"

Data privacy and integrity: an overview

Abstract: New technology invariably generates unforseen repercussions. The computer is no exception. It has unleashed countless opportunities for growth, activity, new applications, labor-saving accomplishments, quality of decisions and many others. Yet, at the same time, it has spawned a whole new field of crime and generated a series of problems for both designers and users of information systems. A perusal through some of the better publicized horror stories will attest to this concern. The need for both privacy and integrity becomes evident when one looks at trends in computer development. Resource or time-sharing systems have their greatest advantage in the capability for simultaneous use by many customers. This also means simultaneous processing of data with varying needs for privacy. Multiprocessing carries resource sharing even further, with greater vulnerability to loss of accuracy of data. System crashes become more serious, simultaneous updates of data can affect the integrity of the system and the entire operation becomes more complex, therefore subject to error. And finally, with the integration of data bases and the advent of the data base management system, the need for privacy becomes ever more acute. Organizational boundaries still exist; it takes a very secure system to convince users to share their data with their competitor, whether he is in another organization or the same. Definitions The terms privacy and integrity need some explanation. Privacy refers to the requirement for protection of data from inadvertant or unauthorized disclosure. Most users of the term consider it to apply to the corporate or academic environment. Yet the same requirements exist in the governmental sector where the term "security" has widespread usage. For purposes of this discussion, the two terms are interchangeable. The discipline or field of computer security thus encompasses the entire spectrum of protection, whether it b~: physical, administrative, communications, hardware or software. Integrity, on the other hand, means that hardware, software, communications and their human interfaces must operate together in a cohesive, reliable manner. Data !ntegrity refers to the requirement to protect data objects from damage or inconsistency. Again, this term has broader connotations because the correctness of data becomes an input validation, as well as a processing problem.

The Political Ideal of Privacy

Abstract: Privacy is a value or ideal in our society, in the Western World, and in liberal thought generally. By this I mean at least, and perhaps only, that ceteris paribus we think much more highly of a society which respects privacy and much less highly of one in which privacy is exposed to invasions. Privacy is therefore in some sense a basic contemporary liberal value. We liberals abhor the thought of a society in which there is censorship of letters, unrestricted phone tapping, bugging of private homes and of offices, searching, compulsory questionnaires by the government, employers, etc. Indeed, much of the force of novels such as Brave New World and 1984 rests on the total loss of privacy portrayed in the imagined new society. We value privacy, and we believe ourselves to have a right to privacy; and the right is thought of as not simply a negative right, the basis of which consists in the lack of rights in others to invade our privacy, but as a positive right in the enjoyment of which we may, by virtue of it, demand the help of the state, society, and other persons. The right to privacy, like all other rights, is of course seen to be a prima facie right. It may legitimately be overridden and is so overridden in situations such as those of national emergency. However, it is generally believed that there must be very good reasons for overriding this right, for invading privacy. This too is part of what I mean by saying that privacy is a value or ideal of our society, namely, that it is generally believed that there must be positive, powerful, justificatory reasons for invading a person's privacy. The U.N. acknowledged this. In its declaration concerning human rights it noted in its International Covenants of Human Rights, Article 17, that: "1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour or reputation. " 2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."l