Privacy Research: Mapping the Benefits of Privacy Against the Benefits of Open Information

Some research in privacy has been concerned with trying to map the benefits of privacy against the benefits of open information. A "fundamental societal tension derives from the inevitable tradeoffs between [privacy interests] and the manner in which the society's economic and social systems function" that has been resolved most commonly in the last 30 years through a "toggle between an acceptance of managerial self-regulation and a governmental imposition of control on corporations." The precise calibration of this toggle is highly contingent on different cultures' value systems. American and Japanese citizens are more laissez-faire about their privacy compared with citizens of other countries. In Sweden, government diktats determine "all corporate uses of personal data," a consequence of legislative regulations following "societal expectations regarding privacy management." It is difficult to square different societies' privacy preferences with the economic and informational interfluence that can turn the laxest country's privacy policy into the world's privacy policy.

Other researchers believe that privacy and profit are not at odds and that a commitment to privacy (or, at least, the imitation of a commitment) can create a trust essential to economic exchange. Mary Culnan and Pamela Armstrong found that "when customers are explicitly told that fair information practices are employed, privacy concerns do not distinguish consumers who are willing to be profiled from those who are unwilling to have their personal information used in this way." This hinges upon consumer perception and can, consequently, be manipulated by institutions. Pollach thought that "corporate privacy policies obfuscate, enhance and mitigate unethical data handling practices and use persuasive appeals to increase companies' trustworthiness." But Culnan and Armstrong believed that procedural fairness is similar to the motivation of targeted transparency and that the cultivation of "the perception by the individual that a particular activity in which they are a participant is conducted fairly" is operationalized by businesses through "fair information practices" in which notice and consent constitute a fair 'deal' with the consumer."

Researchers have also looked to philosophy to arbitrate the ethical issues of privacy. Pollach applied ethical theories-Aristotle's virtue ethics, Kantian deontology, utilitarian teleology and Rawls's Theory of Justice-to corporate privacy policies, opining on how "the four ethical theories explored earlier have deemed data collection without the data providers' informed consent unethical." There is a feminist critique of the idea of privacy that sees privacy as "personal, intimate, autonomous, particular, individual, the original source and final outpost of the self ... in short, defined by everything that feminism reveals women have never been allowed to be or to have."

Privacy is a large, baggy, and multiform concept that researchers are approaching from a variety of directions. Business ethicists are looking to find the supererogatory path for corporations to take in creating workplace and consumer privacy policies. Sociologists have been trying to trace the ways that privacy has shifted in the digital era and how the shift has transformed society. Political scientists have been interested in cross-cultural privacy norms and their interplay. Privacy will continue to be redefined as the advance of new technologies' surveillance capacities necessitates a rethinking of legal, ethical, and organizational approaches to the sharing of information.

Works Cited

[1] Miller, Seumas, and John Weckert. "Privacy, the Workplace, and the Internet." Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 28, No. 3. December 2000.

[1] Warren and Brandeis, "The Right To Privacy," Harvard Law Review 193 (1890).

[1] Kasper, Debbie V. "The Evolution (or Devolution) of Privacy." Sociological Forum, Vol. 20, No. 1 March 2005. p. 71.

[1] Rosen, Jeffrey. "The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America. New York: Random House. 2000.

[1] Marcella, Albert J. and Carol Stucki. "Guidelines, Exposures, Policy Implementation, and International Issues. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 2003.

[1] Pollach, Irene. "A Typology of Communicative Strategies in Online Pricacy Policies: Ethics, Power and Informed Consent." Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 62, No. 3 December 2005. pp. 222-224.

[1] Parent, P. "Privacy." Philosophical Issues in Journalism. Oxford University Press, New York. 1992. pp. 90-99.

[1] Westin, A.F. "Privacy and Freedom. Atheneum, New York. 1967. p. 7.

[1] Milberg, Sandra J., H. Jeff Smith, and Sandra J. Burke. "Information Privacy: Corporate Management and National Regulation." Organizational Science, Vol. 11, No. 1. January-February 2000. p. 36