Ethics In An Age Of Surveillance: Personal Information And Virtual Identities

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title page......Page 5
Copyright information......Page 6
Table of contents......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 13
Part I Surveillance Technologies and Ethical Vacuums......Page 15
1.1 The Project: Ushering in the Age of Surveillance......Page 17
1.2 The Motivation: From Intimate to Innocuous Information......Page 20
1.3 Virtual Identity in an Ethical Vacuum?......Page 26
1.4 Personal Information and the Failure of Simple Ethical Theories......Page 29
1.4.2 The Problem of Involvement: Beyond Simple Autonomy Claims......Page 30
1.4.3 The Problem of Insignificance: Beyond Simple Consequentialism......Page 32
1.5.1 On Ethical Explanations......Page 34
1.5.2 On Terminology......Page 37
1.6 Structure......Page 38
2.1 Privacy’s Limits in an Age of Surveillance......Page 42
2.2 Surveillance and Privacy in Public: The Case of Kate and Karl......Page 43
2.3 Privacy’s Recent History......Page 48
2.3.1 Privacy and Surveillance Technology......Page 49
2.3.2 Privacy Described......Page 50
2.3.3 Privacy Justified......Page 54
2.4.2 Problems with Multiple Concepts......Page 58
2.4.3 Privacy as a Cluster of Related Conceptions......Page 59
2.5.1 Privacy as Social Good and Its Limits......Page 61
2.5.2 Context Relative Informational Norms (CRINs) and Their Extension......Page 63
2.5.3 Giving Oomph to Data Protection......Page 64
2.6 Surveillance Technologies and Privacy’s Return......Page 66
2.7 Kate and Karl Revisited: Pluralism in Privacy......Page 68
3.1 Property’s Failure in an Age of Surveillance......Page 70
3.2 Owning the Products of Surveillance: The Case of CCTV......Page 71
3.3.1 Property and Information Technologies......Page 73
3.3.2 Property Described......Page 75
3.3.3 Individual Rights: Labour Investment and Historical Entitlement......Page 78
3.3.4 Individual Rights: Psychological Individuation......Page 82
3.3.5 Social Good......Page 85
3.4 Intellectual Property: Owning the Intangible......Page 88
3.5 Surveillance Products, Personal Information and Property......Page 92
3.6 CCTV Revisited: Relating Information to People......Page 98
Part II Identity and Information......Page 101
4.1 Identity in a World of Information: An Age of Surveillance......Page 103
4.2 What Are We Doing With Our Lives? The Case of Sally Online......Page 104
4.3.1 Human Cognition: Thoughts about Thoughts......Page 105
4.3.2 Dual Process Scheme of Perception: Feed Forward Perception (FFP)......Page 107
4.3.3 Dual Process Scheme of Perception: Reverse Hierarchy Theory (RHT)......Page 109
4.3.4 Informational Processing, Cognition and Identification......Page 110
4.4.1 Do You See What I See?......Page 111
4.4.2 Existing Cognitive Networks and Dual Cognitive Processes......Page 113
4.5 What Is Identity?......Page 114
4.5.1 Numeric Identity......Page 116
4.5.2 Character Identity......Page 117
4.5.3 Group Identity......Page 118
4.5.5 A Common Element......Page 119
4.6.1 Self-Regarding Identity: I Am Who I Perceive Myself to Be......Page 120
4.6.2 Other-Regarding Identity: You Are Who I Perceive You to Be......Page 126
4.6.3 Other/Other-Regarding Identity: They Are Who I Perceive Others to Perceive Them to Be......Page 130
4.6.4 Spelling Out the General Account of Identity: X Perceives Y to Be Z......Page 134
4.7 Sally Revisited: Virtual Identity......Page 136
5.1 Information Everywhere......Page 140
5.2 Information as Morally Reactive: The Case of the Aggression Gene......Page 141
5.3 Data: The Pieces of the Puzzle......Page 143
5.4 Syntax: The Rules of the Game......Page 144
5.5 Semantics: What Is the Meaning of This?......Page 145
5.6.1 Knowledge, Truth and Information......Page 148
5.6.2 Information as Knowledge......Page 151
5.6.3 Information and Integration......Page 152
5.7 Information and Communication......Page 154
5.7.2 Information as a Communicative Process......Page 155
5.8.1 Something from Something......Page 158
5.8.2 Four Types of Emergence......Page 159
5.8.3 What Has Emerged?......Page 161
5.9 The Aggression Gene Revisited: Multirealisability......Page 163
6.1 Identity and Information: Stepping Into the Circle of Surveillance......Page 166
6.2 What Causes What? The Case of Watching Watchers/CCTV Operators......Page 167
6.3 The Role of Cognition: Information Forms Identity......Page 171
6.3.1 Epistemic Group Action......Page 172
6.3.2 Individual Epistemic Action and Identity......Page 174
6.3.3 Neurobureaucrats and Information......Page 175
6.4.1 Self-Regarding Identity and Information: On Expertise......Page 177
6.4.2 Other-Regarding Identity and Information: Define Yourself......Page 180
6.4.3 Other/Other-Regarding Identity and Information: I Think What They Think......Page 182
6.5 Dyadic Relations and Mutual Causation......Page 184
6.6 Explicating the Elements of the Identity/Information Dyad......Page 187
Explanatory Priority......Page 188
Thing As Perceived......Page 189
6.7 The Identity/Information Dyad: How One Shapes the Other......Page 190
6.8 Dyadic Relations, Personal Information and Surveillance......Page 193
6.9 CCTV Operators Revisited: Explanatory Priority......Page 194
Part III Ethical Importance of Information......Page 197
7.1 Surveillance Technologies and Moral Importance: Personalising Information......Page 199
7.2 Personal Information in Pieces: The Benign and Powerful Role of Metadata......Page 200
7.3 Setting Limits on Identity......Page 202
7.3.1 Where Does the Self End?......Page 203
7.3.2 Setting Reasonable Limits on Identity......Page 205
7.4.1 When A Person Is the Data Source......Page 206
7.4.2 When a Person Is the Target of Information......Page 208
7.5 Personal Information and Virtual Identity......Page 210
7.6 Metadata Revisited: The Moral Importance of Virtual Identities......Page 211
8.1 Individuals as Willing Informational Agents......Page 213
8.2 Personal Information for All: The Case of Wearable Health Technologies......Page 215
8.3 Privacy Claims......Page 216
8.4 Ownership Claims......Page 219
8.5 Basic Recognition Claims......Page 222
8.6 Wearable Health Technologies Revisited: Tracking the Steps......Page 229
9.1 Information and Institutions......Page 231
9.2 They Are Watching Us: The Case of Edward Snowden......Page 232
9.3 A Taxonomy of Harms......Page 236
9.3.1 Deliberate Information Harms......Page 237
9.3.2 Negligent Information Harms......Page 241
9.3.3 Incomplete Information Harms......Page 244
9.3.4 Limited Opportunity Harms......Page 246
9.3.5 Closed Identity Harms......Page 248
9.4.1 Fair Distribution of Access......Page 250
9.4.2 Fair Distribution across Contexts......Page 253
9.4.3 Fair Distribution Of Returns......Page 255
9.5 Where to Now?......Page 256
9.6 Snowden Revisited: Harms, Benefits and Distribution......Page 259
10.1 Surveillance Is Good......Page 266
10.2 Justifying the Use of Personal Information: What’s the Point?......Page 267
10.2.1 The Point So Far......Page 268
10.2.2 Personal Information: Purpose Matters......Page 270
10.3 From Potential Challenges to Disaggregation......Page 271
10.4 Practical Responses: Value-Sensitive Design and Virtual Identities......Page 275
10.5 Reflections on Ethics in the Age of Surveillance......Page 278
Appendix 1 Glossary of Terms......Page 281
References......Page 285
Index......Page 309