Multimedia: Webcast: Privacy Under Pressure
James Rule, Professor of Sociology, State University of New York, Stony Brook discusses privacy at Oxford University. From the abstract, “It doesn’t take a specialist to notice that any normal life in today’s world generates a steady stream of recorded information on one’s self. We are all constantly emanating data, from occasions ranging from credit card transactions to airline screenings to supermarket visits. We can also hardly miss the fact that such data, once created, take on a life of their own, as they are stored, transmitted, massaged, sold, and used as bases for determining how we will be treated…My remarks will review the social processes underlying these developments and point to questions that, I hope, hold interest beyond our specialties. Is it reasonable to seek meaningful limits on institutions’ accumulation and use of data on ourselves? And if so, what principle or strategy could one put forward to draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable uses of personal data?”

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 11th, 2006 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.