Privacy's Progress

Daniel J. Weitzner
Decentralized Information Group
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

National Academy of Sciences
Committee on Technical and Privacy Dimensions of Information Technology for Terrorism Prevention and Other National Goals

27 July 2006
Stanford University

These slides: http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2006/Talks/0727-privacy-progress/

Overview

Core privacy values
The progress of privacy protection: evolution of surveillance technology and legal regulation
Lessons from history and the challenge for this committee

Core (US) Information and Communication Privacy Values

First Amendment Freedom of Association - chilling effects
Right to be left alone (Justice Brandeis)
Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure - limits on government power

4th Amendment Perspective on Technology Change

Historical foundation:

"Ways may some day be developed by which the Government, without removing papers from secret drawers, can reproduce them in court, and by which it will be enabled to expose to a jury the most intimate occurrences of the home.... Can it be that the Constitution affords no protection against such invasions of individual security?"
Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 467 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)

Modern response:

"[T]he law must advance with the technology to ensure the continued vitality of the Fourth Amendment
Electronic Communications Privacy Act legislative history, Senate Report, p.5

Historical Evolution of Surveillance Technology and Legal Regulation

**Expansion of Technological Capabilities & 4th Amendment Protection**
	Communications Technology	Crime	4A trigger	4A protection
1928	Early telephone	Prohibition	Castle: Physical -- property/trespass (Olmstead)	none b/c no trespass
1968	Mass market phones	Gambling/Organized Crime	People not places (Katz)	Congress enacts guidance of Katz: Probable cause, limited class of crimes, after the fact inventory
1984/6	Store & forward/email	[pre-emptive strike by technophiles]	Activity not medium	ECPA: email gets status of 1st class mail vs. 3rd party business records
1994	Transactional records	Global, digital communications	Power to reveal personal information vs. owner	judicial supervision for transactional records access
2006 Today	World Wide Web and data mining	Terrorism	People not information	??

Lessons from History and Opportunity for this Committee

What drives the evolution?

expanding surveillance power
functional understanding of new technology by policy makers
transparency of surveillance techniques
normative assesment of technical surveillance power against fundamental principles

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