The Right to Privacy
What is the ‘Right to Privacy’? I think it is somewhat
abstract in the minds of the general public because it does not convey one
coherent concept. Some rights to privacy are protected by the right
of publicity which prevents the unauthorized commercial use of an
individual’s name, likeness, or other recognizable aspects of one’s persona. It
gives an individual the exclusive right to license the use of their identity for
commercial promotion.
But what about privacy? I think most lawyers will agree
the right to privacy is a common
law. Pete Landry defines a common law as one being derived from the
"common" people versus legislation, which comes from the
"experts". I think the origins of that term comes from England
when some laws were formed by non-royal commoners.
So this assumes that most citizens of the USA believe that the right to privacy
is a commonly held right, a common law. The right to privacy isn’t
specifically mentioned or covered in the constitution. Samuel D. Warren
and Louis D. Brandeis published
a paper in 1890 in Boston that I believe covers some interesting aspects.
Why do I care? For the last two years, I have tried and
failed to come up with an internal coherent explanation of my right to
privacy. I know that I feel I have the right to privacy from intrusion not
only by other private citizens, but also from the government. I’m no
terrorist or criminal. I have nothing to hide, but where does the right of the
government to protect its citizens have to yield to my privacy. Likewise,
where does my right to privacy have to yield to the government’s right to
protect its citizens?
Publaw has published an
article entitled "The Right to Privacy In the Workplace In The
Information Age". I think it is a good read.
I’ll end this with one of my favorites. This one is from Ben Franklin:
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.
June 13th, 2004 at 11:57 am
Congratulations on the job. You’ve been very much in my thoughts for the last few weeks and I know things will be better for you wherever you go from here. Your blog entry on ‘The Right to Privacy’ is something I was just thinking about today. I’ve always believed in a clear separation of Working Hours and my Personal Time. However, some organizations have overstepped that separation in the past and have worked to penalize employees for things they do in their personal time, or to try and take things they have developed in their personal time (writing a book, etc..). There needs to be some sort of government regulation defining the right to privacy, and also defining how organizations (private and govt) must respect that.
June 15th, 2004 at 9:40 pm
yes, congrats d00d! as with super bun up there, you have been in my thoughts too of late for true. You know something, you are too big for LR anyhoo, eh? Give’m hell matey! No more dry counties! Ha!
oh…subject at hand…yeah, right to privacy, pronounced priv-uh-see. There are enough laws already on that, just too many interpretations, eh? At least IMHO. That and there’s always someone trying to make money off of an unknown new yet to be interpreted area. Hey, just saw that movie paycheck. Lame movie, but talk about right to privacy! Whew! Get a job, create something new, have the corp erase your brain. eek!
June 16th, 2004 at 9:00 am
Yeah that sounds scary. ….we’re probably 50 years away from that, technologically speaking
June 16th, 2004 at 12:41 pm
Where should we draw the definitive line on privacy. I agree that privacy is important, but I am not sure where the boundry should be.
June 16th, 2004 at 1:52 pm
interesting thoughts… i love the quote.
June 19th, 2004 at 6:56 pm
As a manager at two major corporations in the apst 5 years, I can tell you that the privacy policies I’ve had to sign, follow, and enforce are very close to endentureship. The parts where the policy says that you represent the company even after work away from the facilities have always bothered me. The offenses range from wearing corporate logo shirts to a bar, to all kinds of situations where I can’t give my opinion in many forums even using an alias lest someone think I am representing the employer.
I’ve even been to staff meetings where it was recommended that employees not associate with ex-employees because there could be “ramifications.”
At one company I worked for, we were told in manager school that we should not go out for drinks with co-workers. They cited a story where a manager went for drinks with a bunch of folks and ended up telling someone in another group that he thought she was a beautiful woman and he’d like to get to know her better. Next thing he knows, there’s an HR investigation and he gets put on probation.
At one company I worked for, the IT staff regularly monitored employees PC’s, files, and e-mail. It’s their network, their PC, and their data. I’m fine with that as long as they tell employees of the policy. Most research labs even have policy that anything created on their site being their intellectual property.
But why does the company have any say at what I do when I leave there? Do they have a right to monitor this board and penalize me for anything I say when I do not mention any names?
They do it because they can. They have big money to buy big lawyers. I need the work.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The times of “get a good education so you can get a good job, work hard for the company and receive a fine retirement/pension” is over folks. You better learn how to take care of yourself financially. They don’t teach that in any of our schools. Learn to invest. Learn to use the laws and loopholes to your advantage so that you ARE the business. Then you can work for yourself and know for a fact that your boss is an ass.
June 20th, 2004 at 11:37 am
“They do it because they can. They have big money to buy big lawyers. I need the work. ”
yup, just like why a dog licks his own balls, eh? Sucks, but its corp america. The ‘leader’ in democracy isn’t, eh? The law? He who has a better lawyer is the law.
So, what do ‘we the people’ do about it? Is saving your neck the right path? Or should we start a revolution? Wait, can’t start a revolution, apathy is rampant,what do ‘we the people’ learn in school here eh? I dunno.
June 21st, 2004 at 7:53 am
“Apathy is rampart” tells it all. This is why we let our government waste trillions of our money.
The important part we forget isnt “we the poeple” it is “by the poeple”.
June 21st, 2004 at 8:12 pm
And we’ll all sit in our easy chairs, sipping our domestic beers and ask ourselves “what the hell happened?” As we become a 2nd World country and the Muslims, or the Latinos, or the Chinese take over as the Superpower.
History will teach us nothing.