Privacy Law OnlineBy Paul Sheehan

Research

Brown, Andrew. They Know All About You. The Guardian. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/aug/28/usa.searchengines

The Guardian BBC News

UN Warns on Password “Explosion.” BBC News. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6199372.stm

New York Times

Leppard, David. Police Set to Step Up Hacking of Home PC’s. NY Times. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5439604.ece

Washington Post

Bridis, Ted. FBI Eavesdropping Tools. Washington Post. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?noframes;read=15391

San Francisco Chronicle

Chonin, Neva. Sex and the City. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/17/PKG6BKQQA41.DTL

New York Times

Schwartz, Mattathias. The Trolls Among Us. New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?ex=1375329600&en=b5085d50ee5c65e5&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

eSchool News

Teachers Warned About MySpace Profiles. eSchool News. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/related-top-news/index.cfm?i=50557

The Wired Campus

A MySpace Photo Costs a Student a Teaching Certificate. The Wired Campus. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2029

Washington Post

Deutsch, Sarah. Supreme Court Internet Privacy Decision. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29974-2004Oct13.html

Electronic Privacy Information Center

RIAA v. Verizon. Electronic Privacy Information Center. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from http://epic.org/privacy/copyright/verizon/

RIAA v Verizon

Summer 2002 – RIAA files suit against four people for music piracy

RIAA requests user information from Verizon

Verizon did not comply RIAA sues Verizon Supreme Court rules in favor of Verizon

Interviewees

Courtney Meyers – Political Science / Journalism

Kenneth Taylor - Political Science Zach Thomas – Chemistry Lawson Doyle – Business Management Matt Sullivan - Business Management

Courtney Meyers – No, not if the clients had signed a confidential contract and had a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Kenneth Taylor - No, I believe that it is a privacy issue.  It should never be assumed that a consumer consents to having their information used in ways outside of their consent.

Zach Thomas - That should be the policy of the individual P2P software firm. I'd like to see IP laws change, because there are other pathways for musicians and movie-stars to be paid.

Lawson Doyle - No, it takes away from people's privacy. Matt Sullivan - No. The RIAA has no right to personal information

unless it is provided directly to them from the user. Downloading music is illegal, but the RIAA does not have the right to infringe on individual privacy when there was no direct theft from them.

1. Should the recording industry be granted information about users of peer to peer software or torrent sites?

Courtney Meyers -  No, because copyrighted music is a corrupt system, it isn't the creator of the music benefiting, but recording industry. Downloading of files promotes the artist.

Kenneth Taylor - No, I believe only those who provide the service should be held responsible.

Zach Thomas - Not unless they are trying to sell it. Lawson Doyle - No, it has grown to such an extent that a great

majority of people are responsible. Matt Sullivan - I don’t think there is any good way to properly

judge and punish every single person who “steals” music.

2. Do you think users of such programs should be held responsible for stealing music?

Courtney Meyers - Yes, when working for a private company a person’s reflects on that organization. An organization has the right to penalize someone for displaying unethical, illegal or irresponsible behavior on the Internet.

Kenneth Taylor - Yes, as an employee your actions reflect those of the company. If the content could do harm to the integrity of the organization, I believe they should be able to take action.

Zach Thomas - What you put on social networking sites is pretty much public information, but I don't think you should be penalized for your political or religious information .

Lawson Doyle - If they can access the page that’s fine, but using a person’s friends as a “backdoor” should not be allowed.

Matt Sullivan - If you state where you work on your myspace page then you are representing the company and they should be allowed leverage over you. You pay universities tuition, so they should have no say over your myspace content.

3. Should employers, university's, or other institutions be allowed to fire or penalize people for the content of their myspace or facebook pages?

Courtney Meyers - Yes, as long as users of google and other search engines know that data may be monitored.

Kenneth Taylor - Yes, the information that is provided is open and free to the public.

Zach Thomas – Yes, and the government will keep tabs of google searches no matter how illegal it is.

Lawson Doyle - I only think it is unethical if the information is of individuals and not anonymous.

Matt Sullivan - No, but much of what the government does isn’t ethical. People actually assume their information is secure, so if their privacy was to be compromised by giving their data to the government that would be a breach of trust and an ethical impass.

4. Do you feel it is ethical for google and other search engines to supply data, such as email or search engine queries, to the U.S. government?

Courtney Meyers – Yes, by monitoring this information, google is better able to improve their product and grow advertising revenue by figuring out how advertisers can reach their desired audience.

Kenneth Taylor - Yes, any information that is given and used by the Federal Government should be recorded and released at a later date for accountability purposes.

Zach Thomas -I'd like for it not to, but it's not a public utility, google owns the information. The world of no privacy is scary, but if you don't like it, don't google anything.

Lawson Doyle - Yes, only if personal information is not stored. Keeping personal information that is not permitted by the user is a breach of their privacy.

Matt Sullivan - I think they should keep whatever records they feel like; as long as they keep the information for internal use, no harm is done.

5. Should google even keep records of such material?

Courtney Meyers - No it won't happen here. The British have a very different form of government. It has no written Constitution, and the laws are such a journalist can be arrested on one government officials belief that a story is treasonous.

Kenneth Taylor - I believe that this could possibly happen here in the U.S. although I do think that it would be a clear violation of the Constitution. 

Zach Thomas - I don't like it, but I absolutely think the US government is doing that.

Lawson Doyle - It could happen, but I strongly disapprove of it. It is a deceitful and unjust means of operation.

Matt Sullivan - Accessing computers directly is a blatant invasion of privacy. If there is a place where the government, including law enforcement, should stop it should be at the access point to a computer.

6. The U.K. allows its law enforcement agencies access to the content of private computers via spyware without a warrant. Do you think this could happen in the U.S.? Should it?

Courtney Meyers – The programs should not detect the FBI keylogger, but the keylogger should only be used with a warrant.

Kenneth Taylor - I believe that upon principal the producer should always protect the consumer as it relates to the product. 

Zach Thomas - I would like the antivirus programs to protect the users as a matter of principle, but it's not going to happen.

Lawson Doyle - They should protect the users, until the virus is accredited and lawful. I believe the FBI is wrong for monitoring the internet in such a deceitful manner.

Matt Sullivan - They should protect against the FBI because the user pays for virus protection, which includes Trojans, no matter who writes or uses them. No hacking or virus writing is legal.

7. The FBI uses a similar keylogging trojan called lantern, which some antivirus programs have chosen to ignore when checking for viruses. Should the creators of the antivirus programs protect their users or aid the FBI?

Courtney Meyers - As I stated earlier, there are many problems with current IP laws. However, I don't believe one should blanket the issue with a concrete answer on an organic topic.

Kenneth Taylor - I believe privacy, such as any other civil liberty, should be protected by the government.

Zach Thomas - Privacy should be protected online to the extent that certain types of information gathering should be illegal google searches, for instance.

Lawson Doyle - Yes, I think it is very important. There is no reason why privacy  on the internet should be any different than other common forms privacy with U.S. citizens.

Matt Sullivan - I think all privacy that travels over hard lines is by law required to be protected.

8. Overall, do you feel privacy should be protected online? If so, how much?

Summary1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Courtney

P P NP NP NP NA NP NA

Kenneth P P NP NP NP NA P P

Zach P P NP NP P NA P P

Lawson P P P P P NA P P

Matt P P P P NP NA P P

P = In favor of privacy; NP = not in favor of privacy; NA = Not applicable

Privacy

For 60%Against 25%Unclear 15%