Beginning to think about privacy

Case #9 from Hacker's Challenge (handed out in class today) introduces the very important issue of privacy.  Privacy is a cousin to property, because it also gets at spheres of dominion--this is mine, that is not mine.  The limits of property, which we considered last week, often define the limits of privacy; for instance, it might be morally wrong for you to install security cameras in my private home without my consent, but morally acceptable for you to install security cameras in your store which I patronize, on the grounds that my home is my dominion, while your store is your dominion.  We'll look more deeply at theories of privacy next week, and read perspectives from legal theory on rights to privacy and rights to snooping, but this week we'll begin to consider privacy.

Please read the case from Hacker's Challenge (case #9).  Also please read this excerpt from Plato's Republic, about the Ring of Gyges.

Questions:

What was wrong about Dillon's actions?  Snooping into his old employer's network, using that information for his new employer's gain, both, or neither?  Defend your answer with reasoning.

Why would Markwell Publishing have an expectation of privacy within the company's network?  Is such an expectation legitimate?  Why or why not?

In the excerpt from Plato's Republic that you read, the character Glaukon tells the story of the Ring of Gyges.  How is the Trojan Dillon used like and unlike Gyges' ring? 

Privacy is fundamentally about my having access to your information or awareness of your actions.  Markwell Publishing might have had a desire for privacy within the company's network, but Dillon might also have had a desire that his snooping would remain undetected--private.  Was Dillon's desire for privacy legitimate?  In this story, Dillon hid his snooping cleverly; presumably, he imagined his former employer wouldn't catch him.  In the excerpt from Plato's Republic, the claim is made: "no one is just willingly but by necessity."  Are people just because it's the right thing to do or because they fear being caught?  Should people be just because it's the right thing to do or because they fear being caught?

As before, please put these questions and your group's answers into a word document along with the questions at the end of the chapter.  The deliverable is ONE word document from your group, with everyone's names on it, emailed to both of us by one person and CCed to the rest of your group by 12:00 noon on next Tuesday, 2/25.