Privacy vs. Transparency?

Looking Through The Transparent Society       See Foresight Institute on-line discussion of: Openness and Privacy: Discussion Forum on the Social Impacts of Surveillance and Encryption

The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom? by David Brin David Brin's fascinating book, The Transparent Society is a valuable introduction to the privacy debate topic. This 1998 book provides fascinating and unexpected arguments for the negative on the coming year's national high school debate topic. Brin dedicates the book to: "Popper, Pericles, Franklin, and countless others who helped fight for an open society…and to their heirs who have enough courage to stand in the light and live unmasked." Brin carefully explains the technology underpinning current concerns about privacy. But then he puts these concerns into historical perspective and argues that the average person has a lot more privacy today than people did in the past. And Brin further suggests that lack of privacy may not be as big a problem as too much privacy. Strong privacy advocates want anonymous user names and encrypted transactions on the internet, but Brin explains what he thinks are better, safer alternatives. The Transparent Society is considered by many to be the most thoughtful and insightful book on the privacy debate. Brin, an academic physicist as well as successful science fiction author, covers a lot of ground with wide ranging and endlessly creative thought experiments and insights. In The Transparent Society, Brin makes the case that is also made by economist Dan Klein in "Trust and Privacy on the Net" (in the May issue of Ideas on Liberty), that much of the concern about privacy turns out to be a concern about confidentiality: "In so many cases where [privacy] is used the issue would be more aptly discussed as one of confidentiality in transactions or in information shared in completing transactions." (p. 16). Klein also mentions a point about misleading polls of privacy concerns (also emphasized by Brin in The Transparent Society): "A pollster, it has been said, is someone who asks citizens what they think about something they don't think about." (p. 14). Brin cites studies showing that while people care about corporations collecting information on them, they don't care very much. When polls ask for a prioritized list of concerns, privacy is not near the top. For example, people use supermarket shopping cards that collect detailed information on their purchases, in return for discounts on the goods they purchase. Another example: though people care about privacy, they care more about crime. Small cameras in public places dramatically lower crime rates (a 68% drop in Glasgow, Scotland, for example). Cameras mean less privacy in public places, but most people prefer more safety. Brin argues, however, that the cameras should not be only in the hands of the police. He much prefers voluntary organizations or the general public having access to cameras via the internet (much as traffic cameras on city freeways are now accessible via the net). Neighborhood busybodies will be able to see more things that are none of their business. But since cameras are coming anyway, Brin argues it is better to have information flow in all directions rather than just from the public to government agents. Brin's arguments are not always convincing, but he does a great job of outlining the major privacy issues and challenges for the 21st century. &emdash; Gregory Rehmke