Privacy partnerships: May 17, 1999 issue of New Thinking

May 17, 1999 New Thinking:
Privacy partnerships

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May 17, 1999

Privacy partnerships

By Gerry McGovern

What does privacy mean to us? Privacy, as United States Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis stated in 1890 is the, "the right to be left alone." Websters Dictionary defines privacy as, “the quality or state of being apart from company or observation; freedom from unauthorized intrusion.”

Our homes are private places. There might be a bus stop outside our door but we don’t want our sitting room used as a waiting room. We don’t like strangers – or even neighbors – peering over our walls.

Privacy in the public space is more difficult to define. In traditional communities everybody knew everything about everybody else. The shop keeper knew what you bought and what you spent every week. Many found this environment oppressive and in the modern age, people have gained more privacy about their lives.

However, there are all sorts of things that we keep private to some and make public to others. For example, if you’re visiting a new doctor who is proscribing you a drug, when they ask you whether you have any allergies, you’re not likely to tell them to mind their own business.

When a prospective employer asks you to tell them about your experience, you are generally only too willing to do so. When you’re walking in a public space, you accept that a security camera may be in operation.

The Internet is a public space where the tools are emerging that can track what we do in very minute ways. This is not necessarily bad. In essence, it’s down to where the benefit lies. Companies want to track us so that they can sell more products to us.

The benefits to the consumer have not been as obviously articulated. I would see a central benefit as saving time, whereby we get offered the type of product we need at the price we desire. If you as a company can prove that you will deliver me more value, then I am prepared to give you more information about myself.

The central issue here is partnership. I need to know what’s in it for me. I need to know what exact information you are collecting on me and how you intend to use it. I need to have ongoing access to the information you collect on me. I require the right to have that information deleted from your system if I feel that you are abusing it or not delivering to me that value promised.

Privacy rights are in their infancy on the Internet today. As rights, they need to be evolved by government, business and consumer associations, as all are players in the environment. They must be based on principles of partnership, transparency, accountability.

Sharing information on the Internet can definitely be a win-win situation. But for the win-win to occur, there must be a proper balance between business and consumer. Why does the American government therefore ask business to self-regulate when it comes to privacy? T

he United States prides itself on being the land of the individual. But to me it often looks like the land of the rights of big business to gather as much information on the consumer as possible, and only clean up its act when consumer pressure has gathered enough momentum.

Consumers are willing to give more information in the right circumstances. What’s wrong with establishing the right circumstances so that everybody wins?

Gerry McGovern

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Sharing information on the Internet can definitely be a win-win situation. But for the win-win to occur, there must be a proper balance between business and consumer.