Identity and Privacy in the Electronic Environment

Felix Stalder

Novi Sad, July 31, 2003

felix@openflows.org

http://felix.openflows.org

Identity and Privacy in the Electronic Environment

identity and privacy: definitions

elements of identity

impact of technology

strategies for the protection of privacy

erosion of privacy

reconceptualization of identity and privacy in the electronic environment

Identity and Privacy

'a connected set of distinguishing features'

identity at the individual level

emergent, rather than fixed

modernism vs fundamentalism

tension: projected vs imposed identity

communicative acts

shaped by technologies of communication

Identity and Privacy

privacy:

right to be left alone (Justice Brandeis, 1890)

informational self determination (EU- Directive on Data Protection 1995)

identity and privacy conceptualize gap between individual and environment

one side: public

other side: private

bridges over this gap controlled by individual

difference between inner and outer world

Projected Identity

new technologies provide new means to create identity

early thinking on Internet and identity

Projected Identity

New Yorker, July 5, 1993

Projected Identity

Sherry Turkle: Second Self (1984), Life on Screen (1995)

computer as postmodern machine

experiments with changing, multiple identities

focus on games (MUDs, avatars, virtual reality)

identity as primarily projected, hence individual is control

Projected Identity

old and new technologies of body modification

Projected Identity

"resistance of the flesh"

Projected Identity

if the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak

Projected Identity

identity is becoming more fluid

explicitly constructed

author of own's one life

construction relies on vast socio-technical apparatuses

used by the individual

outside his/her control

Imposed Identity

collecting data on citizens: central feature of the modern state

taxation

military

security

expansion of surveillance

totalitarian state

Imposed Identity

Orwell: 1984 (1948) Big Brother

Imposed Identity

welfare state

administration of services

preventing/combating fraud

consumer society

tailored services

'little sisters'

security state (9/11)

trade-off between liberty and security?

Imposed Identity

Imposed vs Projected Identity

online: battle between projected and imposed identities

assumption of privacy:

natural fact: intrusion

non-existence: creation, or, enhancement

Imposed vs Projected Identity

can technology protect privacy: Privacy enhancing technologies:

remailer and proxies

intermediary as shield

platform for privacy protection

consumer choice

experience of web-cookies

freenet

anonymity as primary value

Imposed vs Projected Identity

can technology save privacy?

no!

privacy is not one size fits all

many instances in which we want to be identified

Imposed vs Projected Identity

proliferation of control increases cognitive load and hassle

we have to pay too much attention

trade-off between short-term benefit and long-term danger

John Gilmore (EFF) doesn't fly anymore within the US

End of Privacy?

control: something that used to be explicit, becomes environmental

totalitarian experience?

dystopia: was Orwell right after all?

no!

surveillance is not one-way but multi-directional

state surveillance

corporate surveillance

media surveillance

citizen surveillance

Where Do We Stand?

Notion of a gap between individual and environment is becoming problematic?

notion of privacy is becoming unworkable

influence on how identity is constructed

difference between inner and outer world

The Transformation of Individuality

Interpretation: individuality is aspect of literate, ie print, culture.

print culture is decreasing in importance:

Gutenberg Galaxy (Marshall McLuhan)

electronic culture creates different patterns of identities

Individuality and Print Culture

oral culture:

ideas are communal: conversation

no real differentiation between inner and outer world

Individuality and Print Culture

Marco Polo (1254-1324)

Individuality and Print Culture

two steps: ancient Greece

Socrates (469-399) vs Plato (427-347)

writing destroys memory and makes knowledge shallow

the idea, ie word, is more real than the thing

Euclid (~365 - ~300)

space as infinite, empty plane

space as room between things

Individuality and Print Culture

Individuality and Print Culture

second step: Gutenberg, Bible 1455

Individuality and Print Culture

print culture chances and becomes dominant

access to books becomes easier

reading becomes silent and private

learn without being learned about

speak without being known

Individuality and Print Culture

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592): Essais

distinction public and private: image of a house

"We must reserve a little back-shop, all our own, entirely free, wherein to establish our true liberty."

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

"cogito ergo sum."

private library: access to more books in his study and a scholar two generations earlier had in a life of travel.

Individuality and Print Culture

spread of print culture:

literacy becomes precondition of citizenship

freedom of thought/religion

cuius regio, eius religio

differentiation of inner and outer world

everyone develops a subconscious and a neurosis

Crisis of Print Culture and Privacy

Telegraph, radio, TV, mass media, computers

redefine relationships between individuals and environment

transatlantic telegraph cable, mid 19th century

"The queen has a cold."

Concern with privacy starts

"right to be left alone"

Crisis of Print Culture and Privacy

waves of computerization - waves of privacy concerns

mainframe in the 1960s

PCs in the 1980s

Internet the 1990s

Electronic Environment

central features of print culture are waining

thinking becomes less and less private

two-way communication supersedes one-way

even casual conversations leaves trails

reading can be monitored

the private is getting more closely connected to the public

gadgets connect fridge to supermarket

medical monitoring

electronic bracelets

gps for children (www.wherify.com)

Electronic Environment

central features of print culture are waining

public and private lifes are intertwining

cell phones

email address

learning becomes, again, communal

open source communities

studying is not retreating into the solitude of the library but linking up with the people who know

Electronic Environment

network society

character of a node as much dependent on position within network as on intrinsic properties

dynamics knowledge need updating

disconnection is difficult

networked individual?

the 'inner world' is drying up

autonomy is being redefined

Empire: there is no outside, not even inside

Electronic Environment

"secondary orality" (Walter Ong)

features of oral cultures are reappearing based on reading and writing

example: post-euclidean notion of space

from Einstein to everyday life

cyberspace is not filling up, it's expanding

Identity and Privacy

we stand in the middle of the development

open where it will go.

privacy as "separateness" is eroding

individuality as "separateness" is eroding as well.

connectivity is becoming more central in both areas

privacy: from individual to collective right?

identity: decentering of self

2003-07-24T11:15:32