eGovernment & Personal

Privacy
i

Emerson O.
O St.
St G.
G Bryan
Information Management Specialist
2008 March 24
Q
Question
ti
Critically
C iti ll discuss
di th view
the i th t the
that th governmentt
needs to track and store a citizen’s personal
information in order to provide ‘aa safe and secure
society’ versus a citizen’s right to protect his/ her
p e r s o n a l i n f o r m a t i o n .
Session Outline:

y First Things, First…

y Political, social and technological

dimensions

y Orwellian State?

y Legislative Matters

10/04/2010
First Things, First…
Fi t thi
First things, first…
fi t
What is Personal Information?

y "Personal information" is information

about a natural person that is readily
identifiable to that individual, such as
an individual's
individual s name, address and
telephone number.

Thomas Riley, 2007

 Political, social and
technological dimensions
Political, social and technological
dimensions (1)
Advantages

Ability to introduce legislations, programmes, and technology if

there is ‘buy in’ by the head of the political directorate.
Centralized authority with responsibility for e-monitoring

Disadvantages

Usually one-way flow of information (national security)

Political, social and technological
dimensions (2)
y Monitoring and compliance campaigns through state
surveillance (political promises):
ƒ Border control systems, e.g., Barbados
Barbados’ GAIA (Common User
Terminal Equipment - CUTE)
ƒ Machine readable passports
ƒ Mobile police scanners for crime fighting e.g. RBPF, JCF
ƒ GPS (T
(Tracking
ki governmentt transportation
t t ti in
i Jamaica)
J i )
ƒ Magnetic card readers (Jamaican Urban Transit Corporation)
ƒ TTPF Blimps to monitor criminal activities (Trinidad)
Political, social and technological
dimensions (3)
Advantages

People are eager to use the technology

When marketed properly there is huge buy
buy-in
in.

Disadvantages

Privacy and Access issues (content not being properly

managed/poor
g p communications etc.))
Political, social and technological
dimensions (4)
Technology:

y ECHELON is a name used in global media and in popular culture to

describe a signals intelligence collection and analysis network operated
on behalf of the five signatory states to the UKUSA agreement;
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United
States, known as AUSCANZUKUS
y CARNIVORE is a system that was used by the FBI to trace the
online activates of a suspect.
suspect
Orwellian States?
Orwellian State?
The world has
changed since 9/11

When I speak of an
Or lli n St
Orwellian State
t I mean
m na
“Police State” where the
government regulates every
g action of the
single
citizenry.
See: “Enemy of the State”, “Equilibrium”,
“Time Cop”, “Matrix Trilogy” etc. where
the State plays an important role in the lives
of everyday people to ensure a “secure
society”
O
Orwellian
lli State?
St t ?
According to Edwards (2005)
Data collected often combined with other
databases to form more complete profiles of
consumers/citizens.
Often involves linking of data gathered ON-line
ON line
with OFF-line. New data can be extracted from
large databases.
x Eg. Tesco’s
’ Crucible
ibl database
d b (
(Guardian,
di Sept 05)
)
x Eg Doubleclick/Abacus scandal, 1999
x Eg “joined up government” projects often link
government t dbs eg to promote child safety, to
enable terrorist detection (see failed US Total
Information Awareness project), to detect illegal
immigrant use of services(UK ID cards
database?)
Legislative Matters
L i l ti
Legislative Matters
M tt
States argue that they must have the
right
i ht to
t invade
i d personall privacy
i for
f the
th
following reasons:

y Monitoring narcotic and other nefarious activities;

y Due diligence for financial activities;
y P d hili andd other
Pedophilia h sex crimes;
i
y Terrorism and national security
y Espionage
p g
S
Some notable
t bl laws…
l
y The US Patriot Act;
ƒ Monitoring of information used within libraries, emails,
IMs exchange, personal documents etc.
ƒ Personal Information within databases;
ƒ Content being exchanged over networks etc;
ƒ New data storage and processing devices, etc. biometrics
in passports, driver’s licenses, etc.
y Anti
Anti-Terrorism
Terrorism Acts (Jamaica,
(Jamaica Bahamas
Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago and most other
CARICOM states);
y Freedom of Information Acts (Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, Jamaica,
Trinidad & Tobago, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines);
y Data Protection & Privacy Acts – These are usually not present in
Caribbean jurisdictions, and instead enjoy coverage under FOI (exempted
areas0
Some final thoughts…

y It is good that governments, agencies, and departments are

working
rkin together
t th r withith common
mm n data/information
d t /inf rm ti n sets;
s ts
y E-Commerce can flourish if secured and managed properly;
y Greater sharing of information for crime fighting needed
(ICC CWC 07, InterPol, Border control).
y We share personal information already (social networks: hi5,
facebook, myspace etc.)
Any Questions?
Works/
/ Sites Consulted:
ƒ Anderson, Paige & Jim Dempsey, 2002, Privacy and E-Government: Privacy Impact Assessments and
Privacy Commissioners –Two Mechanisms for Protecting Privacy to Promote Citizen Trust Online. 11
March 2008.<http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/phr2002/>

ƒ Branscomb, Wells A. 1994, Who Owns Information? From Privacy to Public Access, Basic Books, New
Y k
York

ƒ Commonwealth Centre for E-Governance <http://www.electronicgov.net/pubs/workshop_reports/security-

privacy03.shtml>

ƒ Dempsey, James et al, 2003, Privacy & E-Government

<http://www.internetpolicy.net/privacy/20030523cdt.pdf>
htt // i t t li t/ i /20030523 dt df

ƒ Edwards, Lillian, 2004, Taking the “Personal” Out of Personal Data: Durant v FSA and its Impact on the
Legal Regulation of CCTV” (2004) 1:2 SCRIPT-ed.

ƒ Escalante, Richard, 2005, E-government and Information Privacy in Caribbean Developing Societies,
W ld Forum
World F Proceedings
P di off the
th International
I t ti lRResearch
hFFoundation
d ti for
f Development,
D l t WSIS Summit.
S it 22
March 2008 <http://www.irfd.org/events/wf2005/abstracts_t8.htm>

ƒ Koster, Erica, Zero Privacy: Personal Data on the Internet, The Computer Lawyer, May 1999. 23 March 2008
<http://www.oppenheimer.com/news/content/zeroprivacy.htm>

ƒ O
Orwell,
ll George,
G 1949 1984,
1949, 1984 S
Secker
k &WWarburg,
b L
London
d

ƒ Riley, Thomas, 2005, E-Privacy, Anonymity and Public Spaces: What is this all about? 24 March 2008
<http://www.rileyis.com/publications/research_papers/PrivAnonNymity05.html>