[nexa] Solove, "Privacy in Authoritarian Times"

[J.C. DE MARTIN]

Il contesto di cui parla Daniel Solove nel suono editoriale per il 
Boston Globe sono gli USA, per cui vari suoi ragionamenti vanno adattati 
al contesto EU.


jc


*Privacy in Authoritarian Times*

Daniel Solove

/Crackdowns on immigrants. Surveillance of abortion providers and 
abortion seekers. Harassment of critics. These maneuvers in the 
demagogue’s playbook would be harder to pull off with better digital 
privacy./


As the United States and much of the world turn back to the darkness of 
authoritarianism that blighted the previous century, we must remember 
that privacy is one of the bulwarks against the power of authoritarian 
governments. Unfortunately, we’re living in a more intensive 
surveillance society than ever before, and our privacy laws are ill 
equipped to protect us against government access to our personal data.


In the years to come, the federal government and many state governments 
might engage in surveillance and data gathering as they round up 
immigrants, punish people for seeking, providing, or assisting 
abortions, and attack gender-affirming health care. The government might 
use personal data in its effort to retaliate against those who stand in 
its way. Such efforts might be assisted by mobs of vigilantes who will 
use personal data to dox, threaten, embarrass, and harm anyone they 
don’t like — much like the way many people eagerly assisted totalitarian 
regimes in finding “undesirables” and rooting out and punishing dissenters.


Our best hope for protection is that legislators in Massachusetts and 
other states who are concerned about these risks take steps now to 
upgrade their privacy laws.


Writing more than two decades ago, I critiqued how digital dossiers 
existed for all of us  — extensive 
repositories of personal data gathered by companies — and how the 
government could readily gain access to this data. The Fourth Amendment 
provides minimal to no protection for much of our personal data in the 
digital age. This is because of the Third-Party Doctrine, a misguided 
rule manufactured by the US Supreme Court in the 1970s that holds that 
whenever personal data is in the hands of third parties, people no 
longer have a reasonable expectation of privacy in it — and as a result, 
there’s no Fourth Amendment protection. The Third-Party Doctrine is 
especially problematic and ill-suited to our modern times, when so much 
of our personal data is in the hands of third parties such as credit 
card companies, search companies, cloud service providers, online 
merchants, data brokers, social media companies, and app creators.


When the government demands that companies turn over personal data and 
let authorities use surveillance technologies, will companies refuse to 
cooperate? If history repeats itself, the answer is no. Last century, 
many companies supplied the Nazis with the technology 
 and 
information they wanted 
. 
Here at home, when the federal government demanded data from companies 
after 9/11, they readily turned it over — even when it was against their 
own privacy policies. Even companies that are not eager to cooperate 
often buckle under government pressure.


[...]

continua qui: https://teachprivacy.com/privacy-in-authoritarian-times/

[nexa] 179° Mercoledì di Nexa | 8 gennaio 2025, ore 17.00

[Nexa - Media]

Gentilissime, gentilissimi,


Vi invitiamo a partecipare al 179° Mercoledì di Nexa, che si terrà mercoledì 8 
gennaio, alle ore 17.00,
con un incontro dal titolo "Le nuove leggi dello spazio".

Ospite dell'incontro: Ugo Pagallo (Trustee del Centro Nexa, Università degli 
Studi di Torino).

L'incontro si terrà IN PRESENZA e ONLINE.

SEDE FISICA dell'incontro: Centro Nexa su Internet e Società, Politecnico di 
Torino, Via Boggio 65/a, Torino (1° piano).
Per accedere alla sala si raccomanda di suonare al citofono Portineria e di 
seguire le indicazioni segnalate lungo il percorso.
QUI maggiori informazioni su come raggiungerci.

STANZA VIRTUALE dell'incontro: https://didattica.polito.it/VClass/NexaEvent

Di seguito maggiori dettagli: https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-179


Cordiali saluti,

--
Valeria Bergantino
Communication Manager

Nexa Center for Internet & Society
Politecnico di Torino - DAUIN
Via Pier Carlo Boggio, 65/A - 10138 Torino

web: https://nexa.polito.it/
mail: valeria.bergant...@polito.it
tel: 3473443585