Privacy and the Challenge of Technology

In one sense information technology has been a boon for privacy. For instance, ATMs and online banking mean that we seldom have to present ourselves to a teller. Online shopping offers similar benefits. However, technology can also pose a serious threat to privacy, since so much of what we now do leaves an enduring digital record. This information can then be recombined to create detailed personal profiles that couldn’t have emerged in pre-digital days. Moreover, this information can be distributed far, wide, and immediately without our consent or even knowledge.

Information ethics studies the value questions that arise from the creation, control, and access to information. The Information Ethics Roundtable is a yearly conference that brings together information scientists, librarians, philosophers, and social scientists to discuss ethical issues such as intellectual property, intellectual freedom, and censorship. This year’s conference will address conceptual, empirical, and ethical issues related to privacy and the connection between privacy and information technology.

Questions addressed will include:

• Is privacy valuable?
• To what extent does privacy benefit from technology?
• To what extent is privacy threatened by technology?
• When is the sharing of others’ personal information appropriate or inappropriate?
• What role should privacy play in increasingly digitized academic and public libraries?
• To what extent is privacy law keeping up with changes in technology?
• Does privacy have a future?

Address any queries about the conference to Tony Doyle ([email protected]).