Expectations of Privacy

Do you have an "expectation of privacy"? The term doesn't just refer to your attitude about your personal information, however. In the legal realm, it's a constitutional test that determines the circumstances under which the government can invade personal privacy.

Bruce Schneier raises the issue of privacy and the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure. In light of evolving technologies and social norms that encourage the disclosure of personal information, he questions our expectation of privacy in the digital realm. Is it reasonable to expect that our emails be private? Our phone calls? Our web browsing?

In libraries, privacy ranks highly as a professional value, expectation, and commitment. In fact, the American Library Association "affirms that rights of privacy are necessary for intellectual freedom and are fundamental to the ethics and practice of librarianship."

Schneier links to three legal scholars for different perspectives on the issue. Perhaps the most important point in the article, however, is his emphasis on "stating the - obvious to me - individual and societal value of privacy, and giving privacy its rightful place as a fundamental human right." It's this value as a fundamental human right that makes privacy such a pressing issue today - for libraries and beyond.

Comments

May 15 2009 - 1:39:07:am by ReversePhoneLookup

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Reverse Phone Lookup