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Digital Privacy

Roger Clarke, Xamax Consultancy, CanberraBoard Member, Australian Privacy

Foundation Visiting Professor, Unis. of Hong Kong, U.N.S.W., ANU

http://www.anu.edu.au/Roger.Clarke/......../DV/DigPriv-0611 {.html,.ppt}

ACMA Information Communications Entertainment

Conference, Canberra, 23-24 November 2006

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What is Privacy ?The interest that individuals havein sustaining a 'personal space',

free from interferenceby other people and organisations

Dimensions of Privacy• The Physical Person• Personal Behaviour• Personal Communications• Personal Data

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Privacy is a Fundamental Human Right

• UDHR 1948 (Art. 12)• ICCPR 1966 (Art. 17)• Euro Convention on Human Rights (Art. 8)• Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Arts. 7

and 8)• National Constitutions and Bills of Rights

Privacy is not an ‘Optional Extra’Privacy is not a Mere Economic

Right

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Why is Privacy ?

• Physical Needs• Psychological Needs• Social / Sociological Needs• Economic Needs• Political Needs• The Philosophical Level

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Privacy Protection

• Privacy can conflict with other interests:• personal conflict of interests• interests of another person• interests of a group or community• interests of an organisation• interests of society as a whole

• Privacy Protection is a process of finding appropriate balances between privacy and multiple competing interests

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The Elements of Effective Solutions

• Legal Frameworks

• Constructive Dialogues

• Codes• Ongoing

Consultative Processes

• Organisational Protections

• Technical Protections

• Laws• Sanctions• Enforcement

Regimes

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The Vacuousness of Data Protection Laws

• FIPs (‘Fair Information Practices’) were designed for ‘administrative convenience’

• OECD Guidelines were designed to protect businesses from inconsistent national laws

• Exceptions, Exemptions, Loop-Holes• Over-Rides and Small-Print Amendments• 1980 Provisions for 1970s Computing

http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/PP21C.html

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The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000

• Ignored the Outcomes of Consultation• 253 pages; > 3,000 words of 'Principles',

containing 24 instances of 'reasonable'• Full of exemptions and exceptions• Far short of the OECD Guidelines of 1980• Thoroughly inadequate cf. the EU Directive• A Poor Attempt at a 3Q 20th Century Law• World's Worst Privacy Legislation,

or, more simply, Anti-Privacy Legislation

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Community Ethos >>

• Inter-Personal Communications

• Egalitarianness• Openness• Participation• Mutual Service• Community• Freedoms• Gratis Services

Cyberculture Ethos• Inter-Personal

Communications• Internationalism• Egalitarianness• Openness• Participation• Mutual Service• Community• Freedoms• Gratis Services

And the Impact of Digital?

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Public Dissatisfactions Are Piling Up

• Spam and Telemarketing Abuse continue to be bad for eBusiness

• Malware has been bad for eBusinessand change is going to be slow

• Regulatory activity is near-non-existent (TIO, ACA/ACMA, OFPC)

• Employee Use of the Internet

• Many More Major Issues:

• cookies that breachthe IETF standard

• web-bugs• adware• spyware• silent numbers• IPND• ENUM• RFID• ...

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The Privacy Advocacy Core

• Privacy International – http://www.privacyinternational.org/

• U.S.A. – many, including:• ACLU – http://www.aclu.org/privacy/• EPIC – http://www.epic.org/privacy/id_cards/

• U.K. – many, especially:• SayNo2ID – http://www.no2id.net/

• Australia – many, especially:• Aust Privacy Foundation –

http://www.privacy.org.au/• Electronic Frontiers Aust– http://www.efa.org.au/

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PRIVACY as a Strategic Factor

• Privacy is much more than mere Data Protection, and mere Fair Information Practices

• Elements of a Privacy Strategy• A Proactive Stance• An Express Strategy• An Articulated Plan• Resourcing• Monitoring of Performance against the Plan