The privacy advocates: resisting the spread of surveillance

284 Pages·2008·1.99 MB·English

by  Colin J. Bennett

t privacy The Privacy Advocates
h
the Resisting the Spread of Surveillance
e
Colin J. Bennett
p
Colin Bennett is Professor in the Department of Political political science/law r
Today, personal information is captured, processed, and
Science at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. He is the i
advocates
v disseminated in a bewildering variety of ways, and through
coauthor (with Charles Raab) of The Governance of Privacy: Policy ÒA thoroughly researched, well-structured, and highly readable account of the persons and groups behind
a increasingly sophisticated, miniaturized, and distributed
Instruments in Global Perspective (updated paperback edition, the Ôprivacy movements,Õ their motivations, strategies, and the conßicts they encounter, this book
c
technologies: identity cards, biometrics, video surveillance,
MIT Press, 2006). completes the highly acclaimed, groundbreaking work on the political analysis of regulating privacy.Ó y
the use of cookies and spyware by Web sites, data mining
Herbert Burkert, President, Research Centre for Information Law, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland a
and proÞling, and many others. In The Privacy Advocates, Colin
d
v Bennett analyzes the people and groups around the world
ÒA major contribution to the literature of information privacy and social movements. In this fascinating Resisting the spRead of suRveillance
o who have risen to challenge the most intrusive surveillance
book, Colin Bennett asks and answers all the key questions about privacy advocates. He explores the who,
c
practices by both government and corporations. Bennett
what, when, and why of policy battles against new surveillance practices. Bennett also provides insightful a
describes a network of self-identiÞed privacy advocates who
predictions about the future of networked privacy advocates in civil society.Ó t
e have emerged from civil societyÑwithout ofÞcial sanction
Paul M. Schwartz, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley
s
and with few resources, but surprisingly inßuential.
A number of high-proÞle conßicts in recent years
ÒIn this concise, clearly written, and highly informative little volume, Colin Bennett continues his scholarly
have brought this international advocacy movement more
illuminations of the elusive (and sometimes illusive) concept of privacy. However hard to pin down and
sharply into focus. Bennett is the Þrst to examine privacy
variable across cultures, there is an increasing, nearly universal sense that many technologically enhanced
and surveillance not from a legal, political, or technical
personal data collection practices go too far. Most of us grimace and bear it, but not those Bennett calls M
perspective but from the viewpoint of these independent D
the privacy advocates, who form a loose transnational network. This is their storyÑtold with affection and D
activists who have found creative ways to affect policy A
objectivity, and thoughtfully grounded in the contemporary research literature.Ó L
and practice. Drawing on extensive interviews with key I
M
Gary T. Marx, Professor Emeritus, MIT, and author of Undercover: Police Surveillance in America
informants in the movement, he examines how they #
9
7
frame the issue and how they organize, who they are, and 58
6
0
The MIT Press what strategies they use. He also presents a series of case 7
/2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology studies that illustrate how effective their efforts have been, 3
/0
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 including conßicts over key-escrow encryption (which 8 R
http://mitpress.mit.edu E
allows the government to read encrypted messages), D
B
online advertising through third-party cookies that track L
Bennett A
C
users across different Web sites, and online authentication
K
mechanisms such as the short-lived Microsoft Passport.
Finally, Bennett considers how the loose coalitions of
978-0-262-02638-3 the privacy network could develop into a more cohesive
international social movement.
colin j. Bennett
The Privacy Advocates

The Privacy Advocates
Resisting the Spread of Surveillance
ColinJ. Bennett
TheMITPress
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
62008MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformbyanyelectronicor
mechanicalmeans(includingphotocopying,recording,orinformationstorageandretrieval)
withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
For information about special quantity discounts, please email [email protected]
.edu.
This book was set in Times New Roman and Syntax on 3B2 by Asco Typesetters, Hong
Kong.PrintedandboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Bennett,ColinJ.(ColinJohn),1955–
Theprivacyadvocates:resistingthespreadofsurveillance/ColinJ.Bennett
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-262-02638-3(hardcover:alk.paper) 1.Privacy,Rightof. 2.Humanrights
advocacy. 3.Humanrightsmovements. 4.Humanrightsworkers. I.Title.
JC596.B46 2008
323.44082—dc22 2008013819
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Toprivacyadvocates(anywhereandeverywhere)—howevertheyaredefined

Contents
Introduction ix
ListofPrivacyAdvocacyOrganizations xxi
1 FramingtheProblem 1
2 TheGroups 25
3 TheActors 63
4 TheStrategies 95
5 CasesandConflicts 133
6 TheNetworks 169
7 MovementsandFutures 199
Appendix1:ListofInterviewees 227
Appendix2:StandardInterviewQuestions 229
Notes 231
Bibliography 247
Index 255

Introduction
If one enters the term privacy advocates into any major Internet search
engine, roughly half a million hits arise. In any one week, numerous
media stories quote privacy advocates arguing this or protesting that.
Privacy advocates are the people who, at least in journalistic parlance,
challenge the development of the increasingly intrusive ways by which
personalinformationiscapturedand processed:identitycards,videosur-
veillance, biometric identifiers, the retention of communications tra‰c
data, the use of cookies and spyware by Web sites, unsolicited marketing
practices, data matching and profiling, the monitoring of employees in
the workplace, the use of tracking devices in vehicles, the spread of radio
frequency identification devices (RFIDs), and a host of other practices.
There are a bewildering variety of ways that personal data can be cap-
tured, processed, and disseminated. Some people are deeply concerned
about these trends and have been trying to do something about them.
They tend to be identified as ‘‘privacy advocates.’’
So who are these ‘‘privacy advocates’’? Who gets mobilized when new
surveillance systems rise to governmental and corporate agendas? How
do they organize? What do they do? What do they believe? Privacy ad-
vocates operate within a range of institutions. They work within non-
governmental organizations (such as civil liberties groups, human rights
organizations, and consumer associations). They can also be employed
by government, in the case of sta¤ within the o‰cial privacy and data
protection authorities. They are also found within the corporate sector,
aswiththechiefprivacyo‰cers(CPOs)ofmajorcorporations,andwith-
in some of the major law firms. And sometimesthey work on their own.
Thisbookisnotaboutallthepeoplewhoself-identifyasprivacyadvo-
cates. It is rather about those individuals and groups that have emerged
fromcivilsociety,spontaneouslyandwithouto‰cialsanction,ratherthan
about those within the state or the market. This distinction is imperfect,