Ethics for the New Surveillance

• Published in: The Information society 1998-08, Vol.14 (3), p.171-185
• Main Author: Marx, Gary T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access to information; Borders Ethics New Information Technologies Privacy Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy Surveillance; Computer privacy; Confidentiality; Ethics; Exact sciences and technology; Information and communication sciences; Information science. Documentation; Legal aspects : intellectual property, producer responsability. Ethics; Library and information science. General aspects; Personal data; Privacy; Right of privacy; Sciences and techniques of general use; Studies; Surveillance
• ISSN: 0197-2243; 1087-6537
• DOI: 10.1080/019722498128809

The Principles of Fair Information Practice are almost three decades old and need to be broadened to take account of new technologies for collecting personal information such as drug testing, video cameras, electronic location monitoring, and the Internet. I argue that the ethics of a surveillance activity must be judged according to the means, the context and conditions of data collection, and the uses/goals, and suggest 29 questions related to this. The more one can answer these questions in a way that affirms the underlying principle (or a condition supportive of it), the more ethical the use of a tactic is likely to be. Four conditions are identified that, when breached, are likely to violate an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy. Respect for the dignity of the person is a central factor and emphasis is put on the avoidance of harm, validity, trust, notice, and permission when crossing personal borders.