Mejia, Usi 1

Carlos Mejia, Tharen Usi

Professor Cahill
11 March 2015
Privacy After Tragedy (Privacy Post 9/11)
Privacy has always been a controversial issue. Attempting to balance the privacy of an
individual with the safety and well-being of the country is no easy task. Over the last few
decades there has been a larger push towards both giving more privacy to the individual but at
the same time collecting data and tracking ones usage of the internet for safety concerns of the
country. In addition, privacy concerns also vary from culture to culture, including within these
cultures, different generations of people have different insights on what should be viewed as
private or not. After 9/11, there has been a stronger push for the well being of the country at the
cost of Americans privacy. Data collecting, Big Brother, and the Patriot Act have all played a
major role in dramatically changing what was once a respected right of an American citizen,
compared to cultures around the world.
Before moving on to the many different reasons and changes to privacy, it is important to
address the issue of someones personal view on what privacy is and how it should be defined.
As an individual, privacy is often associated with engaging in an activity in a location with no
one around, or in a isolated place. In addition, there are many different factors that come into
account in the development of a view of privacy. As a child, privacy can be of very little concern
due to the propensity for being curious about the workings of the outside world or another
persons life. Having siblings can also affect someones view of privacy. With many brothers
and sisters, privacy often becomes an important value due to the many interactions that involve a
large family. Inversely, a small family often results in a more passive view on privacy due to less
interaction in family life. Another factor that comes into play is sharing a room. When someone

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has a room all to themselves, privacy is a lot more open and time alone is a lot more available;
but when someone shares a room with their siblings, availability is more limited due to the
second person sharing the room either entering and leaving the room or desiring time alone
themselves. Having friends over can also warrant privacy since as a child, causing mischief with
acquaintances is a lot more common than as an adolescent or adult.
Seclusion however, happens more commonly after childhood. Life changing events such
as the death of a close one or failure to achieve a dream or desire can often times lead to a slump
or desire of isolation to avoid anyone else noticing how affected the individual is by the event.
Keeping secrets also falls into privacys purview. When friends share secrets with one another,
there is a trust formed between the two to ensure neither one leaks it to others, especially if the
secret is damaging to another individual. Families themselves also hide secrets, and sometimes
being kept out of the loop causes an individual to want to know what is being hidden, regardless
of the privacy of someone else. Gossip is also something that falls into privacys scope. Talking
about someone else when they are not present can lead to many rumors about the person. And
often times when the gossipers are confronted, they deny being apart of spreading the rumors
that invade the privacy of others.
A familys ethnicity or religious views can also shape privacy opinions. Some families
are more open to revealing secrets or wanting to aid someone whos keeping a secret than others.
Some religious practices are also done privately as a custom, while others are performed in a
public space like a church. The size of the town or city also comes into play. A bigger city may
have a lot less privacy due to its population than a small rural town far away from other towns. If

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on a public bus, there are always times when other people talk a bit loudly and eavesdropping on
their conversation happens involuntarily.
Another major factor that plays into privacy that has emerged in the last few decades is
technology. Social media sites have evolved the way people interact with each other. It has
connected people living close to each other to people who are separated by state, country or even
continent. Instant contact with those people faraway has helped shape new aspects of privacy.
Since anything posted online tends to stay there forever, most people are cautious online about
what they post, who they talk to or what they say about another individual. The values at stake
are the image of another individual as well as their life both online and in real life due to the way
information spreads like wildfire on the web.
Now that a overall individual view on privacy has been covered, there are a few more
bases to cover before diving into the core aspects that have changed over the past few years. The
first thing to discuss is the Patriot Act. To quote Eunice Moscoso:
The Patriot Act, passed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, gives
the FBI more authority to subpoena customer data and other "tangible things" from
companies. The subpoena provision has alarmed libraries across the country, causing
some to post signs letting customers know that their literary selections could be subject to
government perusal. In addition, some libraries are purging data quickly in an effort to
stifle the inquiries (Moscoso, 2003, para. 16).
Due to the terrorist attack that severely damaged the United States, a push began by the
American government for the need of bigger data collecting for the sake of public safety. The
data could be taken from anywhere. Even such trivial data like library book check-outs could be

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taken in for investigations sake, alarming many citizens. Librarians in specific have their own
policies when it comes to user privacy of computers. Barbara Jones explains one of their policies
in her article, [l]ibrarians should keep no more record of Internet use than is required by law,
retain such records no longer than is required, and protect the integrity of records at all times
(Jones, 2010, para. 5). Since many people use public computers at libraries, there is a record left
every time someone signs up to use one. The explanation that was given for this drastic move
was that, [t]he Department of Justice contends that the requests for customer information are
necessary to stop terrorism and are used in targeted investigation (Moscoso, 2003, para. 17).
While it is understandable that public safety is a priority for the government, the people they
want to protect are also affected by this act due to the ability for the government to collect
information from anything, even if the data is as basic as a grocery shopping receipt. When
interviewing Charlie Lathram, the vice president of security for a company named BellSouth,
Morosco wrote that the act would allow the government, to obtain intelligence information
about people who are not American citizens or legal permanent residents; and to defend the
United States against international terrorists (Morosco, 2003, para. 18). While it allows the US
to protect itself, it also harms one of the biggest groups of people inhabiting the country; that
being the immigrants living in the United States.
On the other hand, many people have voiced their protest against certain aspects of the
Patriot Act. Those advocating for the rights of citizens, argue that the Patriot Act, gives the
government too much power to randomly search for terrorists and that it violates the 4th
Amendment right against unreasonable searches (Morosco, 2003, para. 20). From an ethical
standpoint, violating an individuals privacy for the sake of public safety can harm just as much

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as it does good. It violates the rights of a person by allowing the government to name any
individual a terrorist if there is even a slight lead or clue that may be a mere coincidence. During
2005, there was a push for a revision of the Patriot Act. Protesters advocating against noted some
of the harsher punishments; one of them being that, [v]iolating an order to give investigators
business, phone or internet records on a suspect and keep quiet about it could result in up to five
years in jail (Yaukey, 2005, para 6). Since consumers trust businesses to keep certain records of
themselves private, such as personal information, being able to request such information without
proper proof of suspicion can result in a business not complying with the governments request
and as a result, the business would suffer from its lack of cooperation despite its own privacy
policies it uses for its clients. However, in recent years, there has been a push for a law to counter
the Patriot Act. Unfortunately though, the act was modified from its original draft. This is the
Freedom Act. Joshua Kopstein goes into greater detail:
The USA Freedom Act...was initially lauded by privacy advocates and tech
companies as a major step forward in balancing Americans' privacy with the need for
foreign intelligence. But thanks to quietly applied pressure from the intelligence
community, the bill is now a very different animal from the one that passed unanimously
in the House Judiciary Committee--so much so that many of its biggest cheerleaders have
jumped ship. (Kopstein, 2013, para. 2).
Years after the 9/11 incident, it has become more aware that Americans privacy has been abused
for public safety due to the tragic incident. While there is no forgetting the incident, people have
started to become more aware that life changing events can lead to making certain choices, such
as giving up part of their privacy for the desire of being protected from major dangers.

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From here, its time to move on to discussing how much of a limit privacy can cover
before its discarded for the common good. Amitai Etzioni, author of the book The Limits of
Privacy offers insight on how much of a scope public safety and individual privacy find each
other clashing against one another in certain aspects. Of them, encrypting messages, medical
records and identifiers fall into the area that these two ideas meet. Encryption in specific is
constantly being challenged due to its complexity. Etzioni states that, [a]lthough hyperencryption greatly enhances privacy in the world, it poses new and rather difficult barriers to
public authorities as terrorists, drug lords, pedophiles, and other criminals increasingly draws on
the new forms of encryption (1999, p. 76). Although it is a concern that people deserve privacy
in their life, public safety also needs to retain a part of the two sides. If public authorities cannot
find a way to decrypt the strongest of messages, then it leads to having too much privacy and
empowers certain people, specifically neanderthals. Etzioni adds that, [d]rug cartels rely heavily
on communication networks; monitoring of these networks has played an important role in
identifying the leaders and illegal proceeds of these cartels. Such surveillance is becoming more
difficult as these organizations rely increasingly on strong encryption programs (1993, p. 79).
If criminals can hide their crimes in a form so complex that those who wish to protect citizens
safety are unable to crack, then it gives them too much power as to be able to hide their lawbreaking activities. While everyone is entitled to some form of privacy, using that right to
commit wrongdoings is abusing the right to secrecy.
Medical records are another finicky topic that deals with privacy and safety. To quote
something Etzioni paraphrased, once online, health information can be linked with other, nonhealth data sets such as an individuals credit report to create encompassing persona

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dossiers (1999, p. 143). Since most records are stored in a database nowadays, it has become all
the more easier to connect two sets of records together to gain more information about a person
given the right connections. Etzioni also adds in that, [s]ome companies even provide
specialized software to pharmacists for example, embedded with programs that gather
personal health data (1999, p. 147). At times, the values of patient-doctor confidentiality is
broken if doctors use programs that collect the data without their knowledge of the programs
ability, violating the privacy of that information that should only be restricted to those two
people.
Public IDs is the next topic Etzioni discusses in his book. He states that, [i]f individuals
could be properly identified, public safety would be significantly enhanced and social and
economic costs would be reduced significantly (1999, pp.104-105). By having IDs that do
more than just show whether or not someone is able to drive or is old enough to smoke/drink, it
allows public safety to increase due to its ability to help identify criminals and other law
offenders. However, the problem that arises from trying to implement this idea involves trying to
balance privacy of an individual. Etzioni suggest that, one must ask whether there are ways of
making these cards minimally intrusive (1999, p. 114). Before citizens are open to such a
proposal, they must be ensured that these IDs would not interfere too much into their private
lives that would result in them feeling watched constantly.
From Etzionis proposals and ideas, we move on to Bill Tancer and his book Click! What
Millions of People are Doing Online and Why It Matters. Trancer explains in every chapter of
his book how analyzing data is an important tool in the recent years. He describes that, [i]f
[one] [spends] enough time considering all the different elements of [everyones] Internet use,

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[they] begin to compile an even clearer picture of who [people] are and what exactly is on [their]
minds (Tancer, 2008, p. 3). Data analysis can help in predicting certain trends and aid
businesses like clothing stores determine what to put on stock in their stores during different
months. For example, Tancer analyzes the spike in prom dress searches over two years, reaching
a conclusion that, the industry has been putting out prom fashion editions in late December.
Over time these factors changed user behavior so that girls are looking from prom dress fashions
online as early as January (2008, p.60). Painting a picture through the use of data and search
terms helps open a view into the lives that people experience, showing what their current
interests are through the use of search bars such as Google. Another sort of search that describes
citizens is a search of what they fear. After filtering out certain aspects, Tancer was able to
conclude that, social fears exist with more frequency in online searches than they appear in
survey results (2008, p.106). When it comes to answering in person, people are less inclined to
respond with their actual fears and resort to the internet, where they believe its more private to
search for the terms.
From here, its time to move on to the other factors in privacy. Those in countries other
than in the United States. Laws and policies can differ through many different cultures. As does
the influence of religion and religious culture. However, Joseph Cannataci reports that,
whenever religion has something to say about privacy it tends to lose focus or perhaps steps
back in fear of saying the wrong thing (2009, Theologians Dilemma, para. 16). Due to its
large scale of influence, religious churches and other such organizations must be careful in what
they say to avoid any negative backlash from citizens and communities. Not only do businesses
keep records of their clients, religious organizations do so as well. William Bassette describes

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this process, [r]eligious organizations keep financial and administrative records according to
legal requirements. No one disputes the right of the public to this information or the authority of
the courts to demand discovery of these files when appropriate (2007, Types of Chancery,
para, 1). Despite other businesses and organization keeping consumer records private, religious
organizations have a much more open policy about the privacy of their records, and do not argue
about violating their attendants records when it comes to their privacy. However, that does not
mean they have no exceptions. One of these being when one of their members is accused of
sexual offenses. It is described that, [a]ccusation of sexual impropriety strips the accused of
[privacy]; it casts a pall of suspicion upon colleagues. An accused priest must be suspended until
the cloud is dispersed (Bassette, 2007, Types of Chancery, para.4). For the organizations
image and the safety of the public, those who violate any kind of law that work in religious
organizations will pay the price of losing their privacy until everything is settled; the outcome of
the accusation will determine if the accused stays or is kicked out of the organization.
Politics on the other hand, is a lot more finicky when it comes to privacy. Lloyd Mayer
argues that, politics is an inherently public activity because it is generally conducted publicly
and affects the broader public[a]ny exceptions to this general view, such as those that
currently exist with respect to voting, should therefore be limited to situations where the costs of
public disclosure clearly exceed the benefits to society (2012, A Right to Privacy, para.9).
Politicians are voted by citizens, and their decisions during their time in office affect not only
them, but the entire public that they are governing, be it city or state. As a result, people deserve
to know of their political lives for the sake of the region they have power over. Mayer adds that,
it is the public's business to know about an individual's political actions even if that individual's

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political views would otherwise be private...the public has a fight to know about such actions,
even if they reveal otherwise private political leanings. The public's right to know trumps the
contributor's right to privacy (2012, A Right to Privacy, para.10). Politicians decided what
laws to pass, and that affects everyone in the public and those involved. If there is any sort of
foul play, then the people should have a right to be informed since they are stakeholders in the
process.
After a thorough review of the American privacy, how does that of the other cultures
compare? The privacy laws in European culture protect its citizens more than the privacy laws in
the American culture do. For example, Europeans have a few strict laws that not even the cashier
at a store can ask a customer for their phone number. Here in America, it is common to have a
cashier ask for a phone number in order to sign up for store exclusives or discounts. Other laws
include employers not being able to read the emails of their employees and personal information
not being able to be collected without the consumers permission.
Just like how 9/11 has affected the privacy of American citizens, [s]ome privacy experts
argue that heightened European sensitivity to privacy stems from the horror of the Holocaust
(Sullivan, 2006, para.10). During the Holocaust, the Nazis sent the Jews to concentration camps
by using public and church records. The differences between the privacy laws of America and
Europe are so vast that after 9/11, the European Supreme Court deemed it to be illegal for U.S.
authorities to be provided with a series of information on each airline passenger flying to
American soil from Europe (Sullivan, 2006, para.12). This dispute almost caused flights going to
the United States from Europe to be terminated until the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
and European Union reached a settlement.

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The Japanese culture also differentiates in an interesting way from American culture.
Unlike most places in America, Japanese land and living spaces tend to be much smaller and
tighter (Aliasis, 2013, para.9). Because of this, it is harder for an individual to gain personal
privacy from their family within their personal living quarters and surroundings. However, the
Japanese believe that, having respect for others as well as for oneself is highly important,
especially in the career world as is loyalty and obedience (Silvia, para.4). Thus, even though
they may have limited space, the Japanese have respect for ones personal privacy and space. On
a religious aspect, most Japanese are Shintoist or Buddhist (Aliasis, 2013, para.2). While a
persons religious views in America may have a large part in how that person views things and
political stances, the Shintoist and Buddhists are largely reserved to traditions, celebrations and
superstitions more than strong spiritual belief (Aliasis, 2013, para.2). From this, it is determined
that a Japaneses religious background has no negative effect on how privacy works on their day
to day lives.
On a legal aspect, a few of the privacy laws of Japan are more similar to European
standards than American. For example, one cannot transfer personal data to any third party
without the persons consent, except in a few instances such as being required by law or required
to protect a persons safety to name a few (Takahashi, 2005, para.9). However, there are still
some changes that need to be made to further protect the privacy of the Japanese citizens. For
instance, Japans Act of Protection of Personal Information law, prohibits businesses from
acquiring personal information through unlawful means, but does not bar purchasing or selling
personal information as such (Kimoto & ODonoghue, 2013, para.2). While it prevents

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businesses from collecting the information, it does not prevent them from using the information
they already have for profit.
In India, there were no laws for data protection privacy until 2008. However, these set of
rules, were limited in scope to civil penalties for failure to protect personal data and civil and
criminal penalties for disclosure of information without consent in certain circumstances or in
breach of contractual obligations (Hawkins, 2011, para.1). It wasnt until 2011 that India
introduced the Information Technology Act in which this act governs the transfer and disclosure
of personal data such as banking and medical details (Hawkins, 2011, para.2). These new set of
rules not only affects the Indian organizations, but also the multinational corporations that are
doing businesses with India (Lakshmi, 2011, para.4). Believe it or not, some American
companies worry that this rule is too strict. Miriam H. Wugmeister, a law firm employee, states,
[w]hat if some customers just say no when a request for consent is sent to them from a serviceprovider in India that they have never heard of? Companies here cannot take that risk. They will
just decide to take their business elsewhere (Lakshmi, 2011, para.7). However, Indias deputy
minister for information technology argues that, the law addresses a long-pending demand of
the IT industry for a legal framework for data protection (Lakshmi, 2011, para. 9).
While there are differences in cultures and values throughout the world, it seems that
there is a similarity in which most places are making a push to further enhance the privacy of
civilians. More so, data collection privacy has been the common ground found in researching
about the different cultures. With the evolving pace of technology, it is best to keep personal
records safe and out of reach without the holders consent. While it is unfortunate that it
sometimes takes a tragic event such as 9/11 for the government or others to enhance and/or

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restrict privacy measures, an optimistic way at looking at such delicate topic is to keep moving
forward. There may never be such thing as the perfect amount of privacy, but there can sure be
enough for one to feel safe.

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