Privacy and Security

Abstract

Privacy and security are the first topics involving the interface of the individual with information technology. The two topics of privacy and security are connected, because security is required to make privacy possible in an online world and privacy needs drive security requirements. I will first discuss ethical issues connected with privacy and then with security. The questions raised concerning privacy are these: First, what is the ethical basis for the right to privacy? Second, in what way does IT impact or change the right to privacy? Some concerns about security are these: First, what are the ethical implications for security of the answers to these questions about privacy? At a minimum, we are surely ethically required to maintain security to meet the individual’s right to privacy. Additionally, there are ethical requirements involving security that have bases other than privacy, for example, protection of underage children against exploitation on the Internet.1