Ethics Project Final Draft

Final Project Outline

Case

• Republicans vote to repeal FCC privacy rules to allow ISPs to sell your data, and the bill has been signed by the President

Moral Reasoning

• Nothing about this new law/bill is right. It is a complete invasion of privacy
• ISPs control the network infrastructure; they have the ability to see so much data
• They will be able to see all of your queries to the outside world, no exceptions/very little exceptions
• They might try to monetize privacy
• It is not the same as when Google or Facebook collect your data
• Google or Facebook only collect info when you type/post/use their service
• Good luck trying not to use your ISP, which you pay for
• A VPN will not help if not configured correctly
• You may need to opt for a paid service, but risk your information being compromised
• You have to trust that provider with your information and traffic
• for the best privacy results, you are better off setting up and configuring your own VPN server
• Although your traffic is encrypted when inside the 'tunnel', that traffic may still have to be decrypted somewhere to be redirected
• A good example are DNS queries and DNS servers needing to know where you are trying to go
• You can use Tor, but that also comes with its risks
• you do not know who is managing the Tor exit node and what they are doing with your traffic
• This is why you are always warned to never do anything personal on Tor, such as banking
• The ISP industry is monopolized in America, so it's clear what the motives were, who had the intent, and how they were able to get this bill to push through
• Some ISPs have pledged to not abuse the power and sell any kind/unnecessary information
• but this is not legally binding at the moment
• we just have to trust them
• ISPs will not be able to sell all of your information
• there will be regulations set
• the selling of information will also not be in a auction kind of format
• not just anyone can buy your info

Contextualize
In 1890, Samuel Warren and Steve Brandeis wrote the article titled "The Right to Privacy" in Boston. In the article, Warren and Brandeis start off by saying that the principle of an individuals full protection in person and in property "...is a principle as old as the common law..." (Warren and Brandeis). They go on to say that political, social, and economic changes make it necessary to revisit old laws to meet the demands of a new society. In 1890, what prompted Warren and Brandeis to write this article was the popularity of two new inventions at the time: photography and audio recording. The conclusion that Warren and Brandeis came to are summed up well by Matthew L. Bycer:

1. Privileged communications are the domain of libel/slander;
2. Speaking gossip and oral communication are outside the purview of privacy rights;
3. Consent to publication is an outright defense; while
4. Truth; and
5. Malice are irrelevant to a breach of privacy action. (Bycer, nationalparalegal.edu)

Although it is a bit difficult to imagine what Warren and Brandeis would have thought about this case without asking them, I think it is fair to assume that they would have a hard time with coming to a decision as well based on their 4th rule, which reads: "The right to privacy ceases upon the publication of the facts by the individual, or with his consent" (Warren and Brandeis). We freely publish our information online using social media sites, and we knowingly (or unknowingly; read the terms and conditions!) consent to our data being mined by services we use. According to Warren and Brandeis, would this not mean that we gave up our right to privacy years ago? Tough call, really. As Warren and Brandies stated in their opening statement, it is necessary to go back and revisit our laws in order to meet the demands of a new society.

Links/Sources used

• http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-fcc-privacy-rules-repeal-explained-2017-4/#does-this-mean-my-isp-can-just-see-and-sell-everything-about-me-12
• https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/13900/if-i-use-a-vpn-who-will-resolve-my-dns-requests
• https://hackertarget.com/tor-exit-node-visualization/
• https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/25/15056290/vpn-isp-internet-privacy-security-fcc-repeal
• https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/privacy/Privacy_brand_warr2.html
• https://nationalparalegal.edu/UnderstandingWarrenBrandeis.aspx