Why Privacy Matters
James Casey, an associate professor from the CUNY SPS Research Administration and Compliance program, shares his thoughts.
Editor’s Note: This blog post was written by James Casey, a faculty member in the CUNY SPS MS in Research Administration and Compliance program.
With the recent celebration of data privacy week, my thoughts drifted to why privacy matters. The title of this piece is not phrased as a question, because privacy matters to everyone whether they realize it. Or they only realize it when their privacy is taken away by another person, corporate entity, or government authority.
Why does privacy matter every day? Well, here are five critical reasons:
· The right to privacy is at the core of democratic governance and is reflective of human autonomy and free will as key concepts for all human beings. Ideally, there would be another amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifically enumerating a right to privacy, but in this era of divided government that is a pipe dream. The State of New Hampshire, however, has a constitutional right to privacy, Article 2-b, and a 2017 National Academies Press report identified another 10 states with a constitutional right to privacy.
· The right to privacy, like the personal rights expressly enumerated in the U.S. Bill of Rights, is best exercised through an educated citizenry. In this regard, civics education needs to be expanded in the primary and secondary education systems. The American Bar Association and the individual state bar associations continue to tackle the issue of civics education. In the September — October 2011 issue of NCURA Magazine (p. 20–21) I articulated why increased civics education was necessary in addition to increased STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education. An educated citizenry is essential for effective governance and to serve as a brake on governmental power and surveillance. Being a citizen of the United States includes responsibilities in addition to rights.
· The rise of technological innovations such as algorithms, algorithmic decision-making, and machine learning have increased tensions with the U.S. Bill of Rights (in particular the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments. The first ten amendments to the Constitution (and their state counterparts) are the critical ones because they are individual to the person and thus deal with personal autonomy. These tensions must be mediated so that people, not machines, make the important decisions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its various technologies should assist humans in making the best and appropriate decisions, not replace human decision — making. In a prior online interview, I explored the tensions between algorithmic nudges and human choice.
· AI must be designed to enhance humanity in addition to privacy. AI tools must not be allowed to dehumanize or degrade people. The proper protection of privacy contains technical and interpersonal components.
· The Security Field (where I cluster the areas of cybersecurity, national defense, and international collaboration) are broad and each deserve separate treatment. As I mention in the May 2022 issue of the Wisconsin Lawyer, these are part of the larger balancing act incorporating law, technology, and democracy.
Privacy in the United States at the present time is largely sector-specific and targeted principally at consumers. But American are much more than consumers, and our public welfare is much more dependent on our beliefs and actions than what we purchase and use.
The right to privacy should inspire not just regulate.
I understand that in a world that is increasingly fast, with demands being put on all of us at increasing speed, it is convenient to simply give our private data away to third parties. But it is exactly that rush to convenience over the past thirty years that has resulted in large scale data breaches, criminal activity, harassment, and bullying which results from large-scale data sharing (and breaches). Perhaps it is true that the genie cannot be put back in the bottle at this late, but we should demand more from our elected representatives. While the individual states are enacting their own privacy laws, it is imperative that a comprehensive Federal privacy statute be passed. Privacy is a national issue and, beyond that, global.
James Casey, Esq., CPP, is a research and technology executive based in San Antonio, Texas, where he negotiates research and technology contracts and deals with associated data protection and privacy issues. He is a member of BioMedSA, the member-driven hub for the life science industry in San Antonio. Jim is also a founding adjunct associate professor in the CUNY SPS MS in Research Administration and Compliance program. He is active in the legal and research management communities, and besides serving as a vice chair in the ABA e-Privacy Committee (Science and Technology Law Section), he is a State Bar of Wisconsin delegate to the ABA House of Delegates. He is a past president of the State Bar of Wisconsin Nonresident Lawyers Division. He holds a graduate-level CPP (certified privacy practitioner) designation from the City of Glasgow College for the GDPR-DPO role and is a member of the IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals).
