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Privacy has no definite boundaries and it has different meanings for different people. It is the ability of an individual or group to keep their lives and personal affairs out of public view, or to control the flow of information about themselves. Privacy is the ability of an individual or organization to reveal oneself selectively. Privacy is sometimes related to Anonymity although it is often most highly valued by people who are publicly known. Privacy can be seen as an aspect of Security — one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear. The right against unsanctioned Invasion Of Privacy by the Government , Corporation s or Individual s is part of many countries' Privacy Laws , and in some cases, Constitution s. Almost all countries have laws which in some way limit privacy; an example of this would be law concerning Taxation , which normally require the sharing of information about personal income or Earnings . In some countries individual privacy may conflict with Freedom Of Speech laws and some laws may require public disclosure of information which would be considered private in other countries and cultures. Privacy may be voluntarily sacrificed, normally in exchange for perceived benefits and very often with specific dangers and losses. An example of voluntary sacrifice is entering a sweepstakes or competitions. A person gives personal details (often for Advertising purposes) in order to have a chance of winning a prize. Another example is where information voluntarily shared is later stolen or misused such as in Identity Theft . PRIVACY AND SECURITY TRADE-OFFS It is disputed whether privacy and Security is in conflict, requiring Trade-off s between the two, or if privacy can enhance security. For the collection of Tax es it is in the interests of Government if one's earnings and Income are well known. On the other hand, that same information may be used to select someone or his family as a good target for Kidnapping . In these narrow terms, one group's interest is to keep the information private. One of the goals of Computer Security is Confidentiality . Identity Theft , for example, is a security problem that is created from a lack of privacy or failure of confidentiality. Privacy can also have free speech ramifications. In some countries privacy has been used as a tool to suppress free speech. One person's speech can sometimes be considered a violation of another's person's privacy. In various cases the US Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment trumps privacy. In Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514 (2001) Docket Number: 99-1687, US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that someone cannot be held liable in court for publishing or broadcasting intercepted contents of information, as long as that information is of public concern. Conversely, the Constitutional right to privacy is built in part on the First Amendment. Census data is another area where such trade-offs become apparent. Accurate data are useful for planning future services (whether commercial or public sector); on the other hand, almost all censuses are released only in a way which does not allow identification of specific individuals. Often this is done by randomly altering the data and directly reducing accuracy. On the other hand some trade-offs may be regarded as false by some observers. Identity Card systems, which may reduce privacy, are often presented as a method of increasing security. However, Bruce Schneier and others have argued that these systems may reduce security. REASONS FOR NOT MAINTAINING PRIVACY It has been reasoned that privacy discourages information sharing between individuals which in turn can lead to mistrust and intolerance amongst people and perpetuate false information. If information can be shared widely, then facts can generally be verified through many different sources and there are less chances of inaccuracies. It has also been reasoned that privacy can perpetuate stigma and intolerance. The reasoning behind this is that restrictions on information about people can inhibit and discourage collection and finding of data that is required for an accurate analysis and discussion on the causes and root of the stigma and intolerance. Philosophers often ask how people can learn to accept each other if they cannot know about each other. Issues have also been raised that privacy can encourage criminal activity as it makes it easier for criminals to hide their unlawful activities. More pragmatically, privacy sometimes is not maintained because there is a benefit provided by disclosure. For example, a potential employer is given a résumé/CV in order to evaluate someone's appropriateness for employment. Or, contact information, e-mail addresses most often, are provided in exchange for access to some useful information, like a " White Paper ". Court Cases Canada In Erwin Eastmond v. Canadian Pacific Railway & Privacy Commissioner of Canada ( June 11 , 2004 ) The Court found that CP could collect Eastmond's personal information without his knowledge or consent because it benefited from the exemption in paragraph 7(1)(b) of PIPEDA , which provides that personal information can be collected without consent if "it is reasonable to expect that the collection with the knowledge or consent of the individual would compromise the availability or the accuracy of the information and the collection is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement. United States In a unanimous ruling justices at the Supreme Court of New Hampshire ruled: "A generalized concern for personal privacy is insufficient to meet the state's burden of demonstrating the existence of a sufficiently compelling reason to prevent public access." The state Supreme Court ruled that financial information people disclose in divorce cases is not entitled to sweeping privacy protections. The court said the right of access to court proceedings and records predates both the state and federal constitutions. The decision relied heavily on the New Hampshire Constitution, which says power comes from the people. "To that end, the public's right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted," the Constitution says. The Associated Press v. New Hampshire. In Davis v. Freedom of Information Commission, 259 Conn. 45 (2001) The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the DPPA does not apply to other government agencies who receive personal information from the State DMV in the course of their normal government functions. Therefore, records compiled by the office of the tax assessor, which were based on state motor vehicle records, were publicly accessible. Excerpt of a ruling by Judge Kenneth Johnson, Indianapolis, Indiana, "The great public interest in the reporting, investigation and prosecution of child abuse trumps even the patient's interest in privileged communication with her physicians because, in the end, both the patient and the state are benefited by the disclosure," Johnson wrote. In Las Vegas Review v. Board of County Commissioners, August 18 , 2000 ., Nevada's highest court ruled that Records showing the telephone numbers of incoming and outgoing calls on publicly owned cellular telephones are not confidential or private. PRIVACY IN THE WORKPLACE European workplace privacy The EU Directive 95/46/EC on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data limits and regulates the collection of personal information on individuals, including workers. Firms that monitor employees' use of e-mail, the internet or phones as part of their business practice, and do not tell employees or have not obtained employee consent to do so, can in most cases be sued under Article 8 the European Convention on Human Rights which provides for the right to respect for his private and family life. On the other hand, although EU law is clear that e-mail interception is illegal, the law is not totally clear as to whether companies may prohibit employees from sending private e-mails. Sylvia Mercado Kierkegaard (2005) Reading Your Keystroke: Whose Mail Is It? Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Publisher: Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, Volume 3592 / 2005, Chapter: p. 256 U.S. workplace privacy In the United States, the situation is quite different. In 2005 for example, a survey of more than 500 U.S. companies found that over half had disciplined and about one in four employers had terminated (fired) an employee for "inappropriate" use of the internet, such as sending an inappropriate e-mail message to a client or supervisor, neglecting work while Chatting with friends, or viewing pornography during work hours. {Link without Title} The tools that are used for this surveillance are often caching Proxy Server s that are also used for web-monitoring. PRIVACY LAWS See Also: Civil liberties The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights , in article 12, states: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Countries such as France protect privacy explicitly in their constitution (France's Declaration Of The Rights Of Man And Of The Citizen ), while the Supreme Court Of The United States has found that the U.S. Constitution contains "penumbras" that implicitly grant a right to privacy against government intrusion, for example in '' Griswold V. Connecticut '' ( 1965 ). Other countries without constitutional privacy protections have laws protecting privacy, such as the United Kingdom 's Data Protection Act 1998 or Australia 's Privacy Act 1988 . The European Union requires all member states to legislate to ensure that citizens have a right to privacy, through directives such as Directive 95/46 . If the privacy of an individual is breached, the individual may bring a lawsuit asking for monetary damages. However, in the United Kingdom, some recent cases involving celebrities such as (retrieved 27 April , 2005 ). In the United States, the right of Freedom Of Speech granted in the First Amendment have limited the effects of lawsuits for breach of privacy. Organisations such as Privacy International , a London -based Non-governmental Organisation formed in 1990 , exist as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations. On the flip side organizations such as ARTICLE 19 a UK based non-governmental organization exist as a watchdog on governments using privacy as a tool for censorship and restrictions on free speech. In the United States, Federal law regulating communications carriers prohibits the disclosure of customer phone records. U.S. Code Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, Part I, Section 222 Breaches of this law in the private sector were found to be common, with sales of call detail information becoming the subject of Congressional inquiry. More recently, it has been revealed that the United States National Security Agency has been warehousing the call detail information of billions of individual phone calls for pattern analysis. Whether this was done in violation of law or through powers granted by Congress as part of the broader "War on Terrorism" is the subject of debate. Bodies and organizations
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