Accountable Privacy (Transcript of Discussion)

Abstract

Initially Mike and I had the idea that we would each take sides; one would be accountability, one would be privacy, and we’d debate, but actually both of us wanted to be on the privacy side. So instead I’ll talk for a while about this apparent conflict between privacy on the one hand and accountability on the other. We’ll look at a number of existing technologies, some open questions, and although I guess there’s no new research in the paper now, the hope is that looking at things through this lens might ultimately lead to new solutions. We’re all aware that change in technology is making privacy much harder: we have much more use of computers, computers are heavily networked, storage costs are going way down, and computers are getting more powerful, so we have increased ability to process and store large amounts of data. So whereas it used to be we had to work hard to make information public – that’s what a lot of computer science was about, getting information from one place to another in a reliable and persistent way – now the infrastructure has evolved to make that very easy. What’s become harder is to keep the information private, understanding where it flows, when it flows, and the fallout of it all. And the issue of privacy has become much more critical as public awareness increases of this new world that we’re in and as potential misuse starts to be on the rise, and also I think as these conflicting roles increase: the desire for privacy on the one hand, and the desire for using this information on the other hand.