Data in which "enough personally identifiable information [is] removed or obscured so that the remaining information does not identify an individual and there is no reasonable basis to believe that the information can be used to identify an individual."
Directory information is information contained in the education records of a student that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. Typically, "directory information" includes information such as name, address, telephone listing, date and place of birth, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, and dates of attendance. A school may disclose "directory information" to third parties without consent if it has given public notice of the types of information which it has designated as "directory information," the parent's or eligible student's right to restrict the disclosure of such information, and the period of time within which a parent or eligible student has to notify the school in writing that he or she does not want any or all of those types of information designated as "directory information." From studentprivacy.ed.gov
As originally defined in the 1973 US government advisory committee, chaired by Willis Ware of RAND:
There must be no personal data record-keeping systems whose very existence is secret.
There must be a way for an individual to find out what personal information is in a record and how it's used.
There must be a way for an individual to prevent information obtained for one purpose from being used or made available for other purposes without his or her consent.
There must be a way for an individual to correct or amend a record of identifiable personal information.
Any organization cerating, maintaining, using, or disseminating records of identifiable personal data must ensure the reliability of the data for its intended use and must take reasonable precautions to prevent misuse of the data.
From Richard, Why Privacy Matters, p. 29
"Once entangled, we cannot tear ourselves away without leaving modern, networked life as we know it behind" (Richards, 86).
Wikipedia notes the idiomatic meaning that: "An agreement in which a person abandons his or her spiritual values or moral principles in order to obtain knowledge, wealth or other benefits."
"A filter bubble is an algorithmic bias that skews or limits the information an individual user sees on the internet. The bias is caused by the weighted algorithms that search engines, social media sites and marketers use to personalize user experience" (TechTarget)
No definitive conclusion can be drawn from a small piece of personal information. However, a definitive picture can be drawn with every additional data point."
"This theory derives its name from stone mosaics, the intricate patterns and gorgeous images of which are made up of small, plain-colored stones that are insignificant and bland individually. If we fail to protect the individual stones, the innocuous individual data points, we allow a detailed picture of our private lives to be drawn in the end." (Hoepman, Privacy is Hard, p 4).
"Privacy is the degree to which human information is neither known nor used" (Richards, Why Privacy Matters, 2022).
Many laws - such as Ed Law 2-d - use the definition originally provided in FERPA:
The term includes, but is not limited to—
(a) The student's name;
(b) The name of the student's parent or other family members;
(c) The address of the student or student's family;
(d) A personal identifier, such as the student's social security number, student number, or biometric record;
(e) Other indirect identifiers, such as the student's date of birth, place of birth, and mother's maiden name;
(f) Other information that, alone or in combination, is linked or linkable to a specific student that would allow a reasonable person in the school community, who does not have personal knowledge of the relevant circumstances, to identify the student with reasonable certainty; or
(g) Information requested by a person who the educational agency or institution reasonably believes knows the identity of the student to whom the education record relates.
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1232g) Record means any information recorded in any way, including, but not limited to, handwriting, print, computer media, video or audio tape, film, microfilm, and microfiche.
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1232g) Secretary means the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education or an official or employee of the Department of Education acting for the Secretary under a delegation of authority.
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1232g) Student, except as otherwise specifically provided in this part, means any individual who is or has been in attendance at an educational agency or institution and regarding whom the agency or institution maintains education records.
A phenomenon in which human data powers the information revolution, yet the revolution is powered by human information.
Companies, governments, and other entities use information to exercise power over people - and that information is derived from technology.
"Privacy is about power because information is power, and information gives you the power to control other people" (Richards, p. 42)
"Algorithmic decision-making based on data"…
"Algorithms are, in part, our opinions embedded in code" (Richards, 159)
“the focused, systematic and routine attention to personal details for purposes of influence, management, protection or direction.”
Four aspects:
First, surveillance is focused on learning information about individuals.
Second, surveillance is systematic, which is to say that it is intentional rather than random or arbitrary.
Third, surveillance is routine, part of the ordinary administrative apparatus that characterizes modern societies.
Fourth, surveillance can have a wide variety of purposes—sometimes totalitarian domination, more often subtler forms of influence or control, and sometimes oversight or protection. (p. 138)
1. A new economic order that claims human experience as free raw material for hidden commercial practices of extraction, prediction, and sales;
2. A parasitic economic logic in which the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new global architecture of behavioral modification;
3. A rogue mutation of capitalism marked by concentrations of wealth, knowledge, and power unprecedented in human history;
4. The foundational framework of a surveillance economy;
5. As significant a threat to human nature in the twenty-first century as industrial capitalism was to the natural world in the nineteenth and twentieth;
6. The origin of a new instrumentarian power that asserts dominance over society and presents startling challenges to market democracy;
7. A movement that aims to impose a new collective order based on total certainty; 8. An expropriation of critical human rights that is best understood as a coup from above: an overthrow of the people’s sovereignty.
From The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff