The Iconoclast – CNET News.com – Should AT&T be held legally responsible for any NSA cooperation?:
This is a fine example of McCullagh’s Law in action: Unless you vote my way, Americans will die. (Is the Bush administration really serious about this, by the way? Do they think that gun-toting privacy activists will start kidnapping or shooting AT&T network technicians?)
The concept of "privacy"--as in "the right to privacy"--can be understood in a number of ways. This multitude of potential meanings and uses is partly why the concept is controversial, confusing, and perhaps even contradictory. Previously I have discussed the difference in perceptions of privacy in the 19th century, where the legal focus seemed to be more on "confidentiality" than what we have come to understand as "privacy" today. That is, the 19th century concern was with maintaining trust relationships between people rather than with protecting either secrecy or autonomy (although that is not to say that these were not valued).
I'm generally in favor of holding companies liable for their actions -- after all, if we treat corporations as "persons" under the law, then they should have responsibilities as well as protections and benefits. But I'm not sure about holding executives criminally liable -- perhaps in the case of knowing pollution or conspiracy to cover up product dangers -- but not, I think, for actions they are not directly responsible for, as in this case from Italy.
It took nearly 50 years for Justice Brandeis' ground-breaking law review article on the right to privacy to begin to widely influence judicial decisions. By 1948, though, a dozen or so states had begun to recognize the right as a part of common law.
Privacy as secrecy and privacy as autonomy
I'm currently a graduate student of the history of law and technology at the University of California, San Diego. I also provide law and technology consulting services.
Additionally, I'm a non-practicing lawyer and former developer/sysadmin at a biotech non-profit. For more about me and my work, see krisnelson.org or my Google Profile. Post title: Should AT&T be held legally responsible for any NSA cooperation?
Authored by: Kristopher Nelson
Date posted: Oct 12, 2007
Categorized as: law • news • privacy • search and seizure • technology • wiretap
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