This page contains links to sites dealing with privacy and the
impending privacy crisis, intellectual property rights, copyrights,
trademarks, fair use, protection, remedies, law, policy, related
mailing lists, etc.
There is no doubt that we are headed for a major privacy and
intellectual property rights crisis. It is only a matter of time
until the fast pace and the ease of information exchange create
a major concern about privacy issues, world-wide.
One of the issues is the substantial difficulty in
describing privacy and the circumstances when it should be
protected in different cultures; another issue is the
difficulty of implementing effective monitoring and control
systems to assure privacy protection of any sort.
The U.S. Code of Fair
Information Practices
In 1972, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health Education
and Welfare, then Elliot L. Richardson, appointed an Advisory
Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems to explore the impact
of computerized record keeping on individuals. In a report
published in 1973, the Advisory Committee proposed a Code of Fair
Information Practices. These practices supplied the intellectual
and statutory framework for the Privacy Act of 1974, the U.S.
federal law regulating the use of personal information by the
government, and served as a model for privacy legislation in this
country and worldwide. The basic principles of the 1973 Code are
as follows:
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
information is in his or her file and how the information is
being used;
There must be a way for an individual to correct information
in his or her records;
Any organization creating, maintaining, using, or
disseminating records of personally identifiable information
must assure the reliability of the data for its intended use and
must take precautions to prevent misuse; and
There must be a way for an individual to prevent personal
information obtained for one purpose from being used for another
purpose without his or her consent.
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Canadian Standards
Association's Ten Fair Information Principles.
These principles represent a consensus of stakeholders from the
private sector, consumer and other public interest organizations
and some Canadian government bodies. Their adoption and use is
entirely voluntary; but they may represent a starting point for
planned legislation (see source below).
Accountability: An organization is responsible for
personal information under its control, and shall designate an
individual or individuals who are accountable for the
organization's compliance with the Code's principles.
Identifying Purposes: The purposes for which
personal information is collected shall be identified by the
organization at or before the time the information is collected.
Consent: The knowledge and consent of the individual
are required for the collection, use or disclosure of personal
information, except where inappropriate.
Limiting Collection: The collection of personal
information shall be limited to that which is necessary for the
purposes identified by the organization. Information shall be
collected by fair and lawful means.
Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention: Personal
information shall not be used or disclosed for purposes other
than those for which it was collected, except with the consent
of the individual or as required by law. Personal information
shall be retained only as long as is necessary for the
fulfilment of those purposes.
Accuracy: Personal information shall be as accurate,
complete and up-to-date as is necessary for the purposes for
which it is to be used.
Safeguards: Personal information shall be protected
by security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the
information.
Openness: An organization shall make readily
available to individuals specific information about its policies
and practices relating to the management of personal
information.
Individual Access: Upon request, an individual shall
be informed of the existence, use and disclosure of his or her
personal information, and shall be given access to that
information. An individual shall be able to challenge the
accuracy and completeness of the information and have it amended
as appropriate.
Challenging Compliance: An individual shall be able
to address a challenge concerning compliance with the above
principles to the designated individual or individuals
accountable for the organization's compliance.
The foregoing are excerpted from from Part 2: "Finding Basic
Principles" of a Canadian Government discussion paper "The
Protection of Personal Information -- Building Canada's Information
Economy and Society," proposing privacy legislation in Canada in
early 1998.
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the principle that the existence of any government databases
containing personal information is known to those whose personal
information is contained therein. This is also known as the
principle of transparency.
the principle that the government will minimize the
collections of personal information from its citizens, and
collect only what is necessary and relevant for government
activity to be carried out.
the principle that the reason the personal information is
collected, and the administrative uses of any personal
information collected, will be established in advance and made
public--this is also known as the principle of transparency.
the principle of establishing and requiring responsible
"keepers" of personal information systems.
the principle of controlling linkages, transfers and
interconnections involving personal information.
the principles of requiring accuracy and completeness in
personal information systems.
the principle of requiring informed consent for the
collection of personal information.
the principle of protecting against "data trespass" or
wrongful disclosure of personal information, including civil and
criminal penalties for abuses of that information.
the requirement for special rules for protecting sensitive
personal information.
the right of access to, and correction of, personal
information.
the right to be forgotten, including the ultimate
anonymization or destruction of almost all personal information
when the information is no longer relevant.
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Below are some links
which may help you get started if you are concerned about this
issue.
To raise consumers' awareness of how technology affects
personal privacy.
To empower consumers to take action to control their own
personal information by providing practical tips on privacy
protection.
To respond to specific privacy-related complaints from
consumers and, when appropriate, refer them to the proper
organizations for further assistance.
To document the nature of Californians' concerns about
privacy in regular reports and make them available to
policymakers, industry representatives and consumer advocates.
The Privacy Commissioner of New Zealand hosts a collection
of papers which may be of interest.
See also: links
relating to free speech on the Internet - the 26 June 1997
unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in finding the
Communications Decency Act of 1996 unconstitutional on its face.
See the CIEC
website, which also posts the syllabus
(14 Kb) of the Supreme Court decision (96-511), the unanimous opinion
(95 Kb; written by Justice John Paul Stevens) and a concurrence
(30 Kb; written by Justices O'Connor and Rehnquist). The initial
appeals court decision (12 June 1996) contained an excellent Introduction to the
Internet, written for the general reader, which you may
also find helpful.
The following are links to sites dealing with intellectual property
rights, copyrights, trademarks, fair use, protection, remedies, law,
policy, etc. We, of course, recommend none of them and endorse none
of them. They are not listed for legal advice, etc.
The
Ultimate Guide to Copyright is posted by WhoIsHostingThis
(about). They
include sections on What is Copyright?, History and Philosophy
of Copyright, Permission to Publish, Freedom of Speech, and many
more. It is very helpful.
Copyright Website.
"This site endeavors to provide real world, practical and
relevant copyright information of interest to infonauts,
netsurfers, webspinners, content providers, musicians,
appropriationists, activists, infringers, outlaws, and law
abiding citizens. Launched on May Day 95, this site seeks to
encourage discourse and invite solutions to the myriad of
copyright tangles that currently permeate the Web; The Copyright
Website strives to lubricate the machinations of information
delivery."
And, just as counterpoint, here is an excellent article about
the availability of digitized books whose copyrights were not
renewed following a 1964 change in copyright law. It is "Millions
of Books Are Secretly in the Public Domain. You Can Download
Them Free", and comes to us because of "a quirk of
copyright law [which] means that millions of books are now free
for anyone to read, thanks to some [astute] work from the New
York Public Library."
One mailing list, EPIC Alert, is the online newsletter of the
Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC. The Alert
is bi-weekly and covers issues related to privacy and civil
liberties in the information age.
Another related mailing list, called the Privacy Forum, may
be found on the web at:
http://www.vortex.com/privacy.html
Subscription instructions, descriptive material, etc., are all at
the above website. The Privacy Forum "includes a moderated digest
for the discussion and analysis of issues relating to the general
topic of privacy (both personal and collective) in the "information age" of the
1990's and beyond. Topics include a wide range of
telecommunications, information/database collection and sharing, and
related issues, as pertains to the privacy concerns of individuals,
groups, businesses, government, and society at large."
The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) hosts a moderated
mailing list CNI-COPYRIGHT which provides a forum for discussion,
questions and answers about copyrights as they apply to any form of
expression in the networked environment. For a description of the
mailing list, and instructions about subscribing, send an e-mail
message to:
listproc@cni.org
leaving the subject line blank, and entering in the first line of
the body of the message:
information CNI-COPYRIGHT
This message goes to a computer which will reply by sending you a
three-page message that describes the list, its purposes, how to
subscribe, how to submit a post, the list archive, the e-mail
addresses of the list moderator and owner, etc. The message also
indicates how to get the FAQ (list of frequently-asked questions and
their answers). This is the same FAQ referred to above in the
Ohio-State entry, however.
CYBERSPACE-LAW is a free (distribution-only) e-mail
Internet seminar for non-lawyers. It will send out one message
every 2-3 days about the basic principles of the law of copyright,
free speech, libel, privacy, contract, and trademark, as they
apply on the Net.
Title: The Meek Family Website - Privacy
rights; Intellectual property rights, copyrights, trademarks,
fair use, protection, remedies, law, policy, related mailing
list.Contact for further information about this
page: Chet Meek. Voice: 780+433-6577; E-mail:
cmeek@ocii.comThe primary URL for this page is at:
http://www.GoChet.ca/h_rights.htm Page last updated:11 August 2019 (Sm 2.33.n
ff, w/SC; Win10pOn).
Page created: 28 February 1996.