E_ Privacy and Public Life

Ethics: Week 8 Week 8 Lesson: Privacy and Public Life The fourth question: What’s it worth? - Prioritize your values—both moral and non-moral values—and decide which one(s) you won’t compromise Agree or Disagree? “Privacy is the responsibility of the person who receives information about someone. Once you know something about me, the weight lies with you as you decide how to use that information, whether to spread it, in what light.” -Jeff Jarvis Tyler Clementi - At 18, Tyler became a victim of a horrible act of cyber-harassment and humiliation - One night, Tyler asked his dorm mate, Dharun Ravi, for some privacy because he had a date. Ravi agreed but what Tyler didn’t know was that Ravi was planning a horrible act of humiliation; he secretly pointed his computer’s webcam at Tyler’s bed, and then left. - The camera captured Tyler in an intimate act, as Ravi invited other students to view it online. Many students at the university contributed to this invasion of privacy by not reporting or stopping what was happening to Tyler. - Tyler discovered what his abuser had done when he viewed his roommate’s Twitter feed. He learned he had widely become a topic of ridicule in his new social environment. He also found out that his roommate was planning a second attempt to broadcast from the webcam. - Several days later, Tyler Clementi ended his life. He was eighteen years old - What responsibility do others have in perpetuating and sharing information images or things that can hurt someone online? - Where is the line? When does it become unethical or dangerous? Mass Media: Privacy vs Other Values - Journalism: Privacy vs. “Truth,” vs. harm in ways such as victimizing (in cases of reporting on violence), identifying minors, etc. Also, privacy vs. “right vs. need to know,” vs. delineating the line between public and private in public officials’ lives, etc. - New media: Privacy vs. immediacy, vs. linking to information on the internet that some argue should be private, etc. - Advertising/PR: Privacy vs. collecting and analyzing disparate data to create marketing profiles, giving discounts to people who provide personal information but not to others, keeping private data secure, etc. - Entertainment/citizen journalism: Privacy vs. voyeurism, truth, etc Rights to Know vs Need to Know - Our understanding of privacy comes from a few interrelated concepts, such as - Life, natural rights, liberty, property, individuality, secrecy, autonomy and human dignity - These concepts have been widely debated for many years and there are different theories and theorists who have developed views on them