America is in a privacy crisis

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by Robin Landry

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Privacy is that state in which we are free from disturbance or intrusion into our personal lives. There was once a time in the not too distant past when privacy could be achieved through the simple act of locking our doors or drawing our window shades. But with ever advancing technology and threats of foreign and domestic terrorism which result in increased legislation designed to regulate and manage these risks, America does indeed appear to be in the midst of a privacy crisis.

While the advent of the Internet has offered great benefits to average citizens in terms of providing access to information and ease of communication, it has also opened a Pandora's Box in terms of providing greater opportunities for each of us to fall victim to identity theft and various types of online fraud. A few years ago, I became a victim of identity theft when some online hacker apparently was able to decipher the PIN for my debit card. The online thief then proceeded to purchase all types of merchandise and services online, while I helplessly watched money disappearing from by checking account at an alarming rate. Fortunately my bank was able to intervene and reimbursed me for the missing funds. But the experience left me shaken and somewhat less confident in the security of electronic banking.

Privacy is also a major issue in my work. As an insurance underwriting research analyst I am heavily involved in researching the effects and benefits of the often controversial practice of considering claim history and credit information when determining the price that customers should pay for their automobile and homeowners insurance premiums. A myriad of state insurance laws govern not only the use of credit, but also the format and frequency with which insurers must notify customers regarding the use of this personal information and the steps that companies must take to safeguard this data from being accessed by identity thieves. Gone are the "good old days" when, as young desk underwriters, my colleagues and I would order full credit reports on insurance applicants and leave the paper copies complete with customer social security numbers and dates of birth lying about on the tops of our desks. Now this information is masked, encrypted and never provided to a lowly desk underwriter in its entirety. Instead it is filtered through a mysterious scoring model whose exact components are as closely guarded as the secret to the Colonel's "seven herbs and spices" at KFC.

Sadly, the events of September 11, 2001 forever stripped us of the ability to say our goodbyes to cherished loved ones at the airport gate or even to pass unmolested through airport security with our shoes on and the rest of our clothing modestly intact. And if you believe filmmaker Michael Moore and an interactive web-based presentation developed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Patriot Act, passed in reaction to the tragic events of 9/11 poses a major threat to the first, fourth and fifth amendments to the Constitution. These are the same Constitutional Amendments which are designed to protect some of the very basic freedoms that we, as Americans have come to regard as simply givens.

And what impact does all of this heightened security have on our relationships with other people? Are the measures which are designed to protect our privacy and keep us safe serving to isolate us from all other human contact as well? In an extremely well researched paper, Texas State University scholar Ashley Lynn Stuart considers this very question.

Drawing upon the research of Putnam and Bowling, Stuart writes poignantly of our growing isolation:

A person who lives alone may go an entire day, even multiple days without ever encountering an intimate human interaction. For example, they wake up in their home alone, get into their car and drive to work alone, sit in their cubicle, walled in from others and talking to people mainly through a computer screen or telephone, then get back into their car alone, and arrive at home to spend the night alone in front of the television. This single person's average day did not consist of a single human touch or face-to-face intimate interaction. Public supports and informal social interactions would normally provide a substitution for this lack of intimate human interaction, but as people move into the private realm we lose the value of the public realm. This is a lonely life to live. We spend less time in conversation over meals, we exchange visits less often, we engage less often in leisure activities that encourage casual social interaction, we spend more time watching and less time doing. We know our neighbors less well, and we see old friends less often (Putnam, 115).

Surely this cannot be beneficial to our psychological health. It seems to represent privacy run amok with the quest to protect ourselves from the dangers of modern life becoming itself a threat to our very humanity.

References

Doyle, Charles. "The USA Patriot Act: A Sketch," CRS Report for Congress, April 18, 2002. http://www.fas.org/i rp/crs/RS21203.pdf

Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.

New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Stuart, Ashley Lynn. "Inherent Threats to the American Way of Life: Privacy and Isolation in the U. S." Texas State University, 2008. http://ecommons.txst ate.edu/cgi/viewcont ent.cgi?article=1079 &context=honorpr og

"The Patriot Act's Impact on Your Civil Rights," March 22, 2004. http://www.aclu.org/ multimedia/interacti ve/10047res20040322. html

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