Framing Privacy In Digital Collections With Ethical Decision Making

Description

As digital collections continue to grow, the underlying technologies to serve up content also continue to expand and develop. As such, new challenges are presented whichcontinue to test ethical ideologies in everyday environs of the practitioner. There are currently no solid guidelines or overarching codes of ethics to address such issues. The digitization of modern archival collections, in particular, presents interesting conundrums when factors of privacy are weighed and reviewed in both small and mass digitization initiatives. Ethical decision making needs to be present at the onset of project planning in digital projects of all sizes, and we also need to identify the role and responsibility of the practitioner to make more virtuous decisions on behalf of those with no voice or awareness of potential privacy breaches. In this book, notions of what constitutes private information are discussed, as is the potential presence of such information in both analog and digital collections. This book lays groundwork to introduce the topic of privacy within digital collections by providing some examples from documented real-world scenarios and making recommendations for future research. A discussion of the notion privacy as concept will be included, as well as some historical perspective (with perhaps one the most cited work on this topic, for example, Warren and Brandeis' "Right to Privacy," 1890). Concepts from the The Right to Be Forgotten case in 2014 (Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, Mario Costeja González) are discussed as to how some lessons may be drawn from the response in Europe and also how European data privacy laws have been applied. The European ideologies are contrasted with the Right to Free Speech in the First Amendment in the U.S., highlighting the complexities in setting guidelines and practices revolving around privacy issues when applied to real life scenarios. Two ethical theories are explored: Consequentialism and Deontological. Finally, ethical decision making models will also be applied to our framework of digital collections. Three case studies are presented to illustrate how privacy can be defined within digital collections in some real-world examples. About the Author: Virginia Dressler is the Digital Projects Librarian at Kent State University. She holds a Master of Art Gallery and Museum Studies degree from the University of Leeds (2003), a Master in Library and Information Science degree from Kent State University (2007), and an advanced certificate in digital librarianship from Kent State University (2014). Virginia has worked in both museum and library settings managing digital initiatives, specializing in digital preservation and digital content management. Her research interests include linked data, The Right to be Forgotten, and open source repositories. Preface......Page 13 Acknowledgments......Page 15 Introduction......Page 17 1.1 Digital Collections......Page 23 1.2 Basic Concepts......Page 26 1.3 Privacy: Main Concepts and Overview......Page 28 1.4 Violation of Privacy......Page 32 1.5 Types of Personal Data......Page 36 1.6 Defining Personal Data......Page 42 1.7 Concealment/Unconcealment......Page 43 1.8 A Discord between “Information (almost) Wants to Be Free” and “Not All Information Wants to Be Free”......Page 45 2.2 Consequentialism......Page 49 2.3 Deontological......Page 50 2.4 Ethical Decision Making: Models and Resources......Page 52 2.5 Examples of Code of Ethics......Page 56 2.6 Conclusion......Page 58 Role of the Practitioner as Active Agent, and Notions of Privacy in Digital Collections......Page 61 3.1 Addressing the Notion of Harm......Page 62 3.2 The Right to Be Forgotten and the EU Data Privacy Laws......Page 63 3.3 Conflict of Free Speech and Privacy......Page 67 3.4 Real-World Examples: Lawsuits, Case Studies, and Other Relevant Research......Page 68 3.5 Other Considerations for Decision Making......Page 70 4.1 Ethical Decision Making and the Digital Librarian......Page 83 4.3 Law and the Role of General Counsel......Page 85 4.4 Dissemination as Disclosure......Page 86 4.6 Privacy Review in Real-World Applications......Page 87 4.7 Setting the Stage for Good Practice......Page 89 4.8 Ethical Decision Making: Gauging Harm and Acknowledging Responsibility......Page 90 4.9 Privacy Assessment and Review......Page 91 4.10 Future Directions and Conclusion: Morals, Transparency, and Participation......Page 92 Appendix......Page 95 Bibliography......Page 97 Author Biography......Page 107