E-Privacy

March 1, 2010

Yesterday’s New York Times article -Private Matters-When Free Worlds Collide, reported on the ruling of an Italian court against three Google executives for violating Italian privacy laws by allowing the posting of a video back in 2006.  The video shows an autistic boy being bullied by other students. The executives were sentenced to 6 months of jail but the sentence was suspended. The video was online for two months and removed once Google received a formal complaint. Professor Jane Kirtley who teaches media ethics and the law at the University of Minnesota said: “Americans to this day don’t fully appreciate how Europeans regard privacy. The reality is that they consider privacy a fundamental human right.”

There is a historical explanation for Europeans’ strong concern about privacy. During the Nazi occupation of Europe and later during the Communist domination of Eastern Europe, both regimes used fear, surveillance and denunciation (often by private citizens) to exert their power.

There is also a historical reason why Americans are so insistent on free speech.  The American Revolutionary War was in reaction to excesses by the British Government including in the area of free speech and the media.

It is interesting to know that the word privacy does not figure anywhere in the constitution, but it does in the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 8 of the Convention states: “Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.”

It seems to me that this is a case of a conflict between free expression and privacy both important values.  Where does the right of free expression ends and where does the right of privacy begins and who is entitled to impose that boundary?

Privacy is difficult to define and privacy online is even more problematic. I believe it is a very personal matter. We should each be allowed to set the boundaries between the private and the non-private or public. I believe that we are also bound, sometimes by law, but certainly by ethics to respect those boundaries where ever they may be.

A lesson we can learn from Google’s recent dispute with the Italian court is not to hesitate to complain, officially, if we feel our privacy or the privacy of others has been violated. Why did it take two months for a complaint to be made and for the video to be removed? YouTube offers viewers tips and resources on reporting and taking actions on such issues as teen safety, sexual abuse of minors, harassment, and privacy.

As the Irish 18th century politician Edmund Burke so rightly said:

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

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