What is Digital Privacy?

Digital Privacy is a complex issue because the definition of privacy is on-going and relative, not merely situational. For example, privacy in the colonial period of United States history meant something drastically different from what privacy now means in the U.S. Furthermore, privacy has different meanings across boundaries--as European privacy law differs from U.S privacy law, and both of them differ from Canadian privacy law. As technology, specifically the internet, takes off, issues of privacy are critically important. What is now considered a public domain? Does such a thing as a private domain exist anymore? Should companies be allowed to retain data on individual user's searches? Should Google be allowed to take pictures of people's houses? What happens if someone takes a picture of a private citizen and posts it on the internet? What happens if it is a video? Is there a way to enforce a law even if passed?

What are the implications of growing up in a society that always remembers and never forgets? The life of a Digital Native is constantly recorded through digital tracks. What will the future hold? How does this environment impact the ways in which Digital Natives think about privacy? The generation gap between non-natives and natives highlights the blurring definition of privacy. Previously thought private domains are being public--and public places are no longer parochially public but in fact globally public.

These are only some of the questions that need answers in this increasingly digital age. The following description and analysis of digital privacy aims to shed light on these questions and addresses possible solutions.

Elements of Digital Privacy

Collection & Retention

The life of a Digital Native is constantly being recorded. This information about a Digital Native is retained by and accessible to others. The following are examples of what kind of data is retained, who collects it, and who can view it.

Visibility

Technology can organize, highlight, and take out of context info that's already available online. For example, the New York Times recently reported that Rudy Giuliani's daughter supported Barack Obama on Facebook.[1] After this was reported her profile was taken down. This incident shows that much of the information on the internet is available for anyone to see. ZabaSearch provides people's full name, birth date and address.

Control over reproduction/duplication

This is a tricky issue arising from the internet. Previously thought private information is now becoming public. The following are examples of people's picture/video taken without their permission and circulated throughout the internet. While in the first example the victim is not in the wrong, whereas in the other two people genuinely did immoral acts, nevertheless the issue arises: Does a person control a right to reproduction/duplication of their body and actions from the internet? As of yet, no solution has been found that does grant full autonomy to the individual.

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Generational Differences toward Privacy

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United States and EU Privacy Laws

In March 2006, the European Commission passed the European Data Retention Directive. This directive legally requires all Internet and telephone service providers in the EU to retain records of communication data for up to 2 years. While communication service providers are _not_ allowed to retain records of the _content_ of communications, virtually all other data about the communications is required to be collected and stored, to be turned over to the authorities upon request.

Americans are skeptical of having the government have their information but OK having business handle it [2]. That is, in the US privacy protection is essentially liberty protection, i.e. protection from government [3]. Moreover, American privacy law has never fully embraced privacy within relationships; it typically views information exposed to others as no longer private.[4] This is not that surprising since U.S. Privacy law historically focused on protecting the liberty of each individual citizen from the government.

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Problems of Digital Privacy

Choosing between providing oneâs personal information and giving up the information and services that an individual wants from the network is particularly difficult in the current technological environment because, in many cases, it is not known what will happen to the personal information once it is out on the network. [5]

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Solutions for Digital Privacy

Americans are skeptical of having the government have their information but OK having business handle it [6]. That is, in the US privacy protection is essentially liberty protection, i.e. protection from government [7]. Moreover, American privacy law has never fully embraced privacy within relationships; it typically views information exposed to others as no longer private.[8] This is not that surprising since U.S. Privacy law historically focused on protecting the liberty of each individual citizen from the government.

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