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> A reasonable person would not expect privacy in a public library, because it is, by definition, public. A library is public not because there is a lack of pr
by foobarbazqux 13y ago
> A reasonable person would not expect privacy in a public library, because it is, by definition, public.
A library is public not because there is a lack of privacy, but because it owned by the state. Do you not have privacy in a public restroom? The same arguments here about the physical expectations of privacy apply to private libraries in private universities.
Yes, when I go to the library, I notice from time to time the covers of books or magazines that other people are reading. However, in retrospect I cannot remember a single instance of who read what book, not their names if I know them nor their faces. I'm a pretty observant person with a good memory, so I have the same reciprocal expectations of others. If I were to walk up to somebody and straight up ask them what book they were reading, or to start reading over their shoulder, that would be considered an invasion of privacy.
Of course I don't have any way to prove this, but I would be astonished if a stranger in the city that's only ever seen me in the library could tell you what I've taken off the shelf.
Facebook is kind of like posting things on bulletin boards. Email is like sending postcards. Google is the aforementioned card catalog.
- diminoten 13y agoThat's a fair point about the public library, but it is still a public place. The standard of expectation of privacy is set by society[0], not you specifically. Even if you don't write down the books other people are carrying around, it's not illegal or even morally wrong to do so, nor would it be an invasion of privacy to ask a person what book he/she was reading. Not sure about literally reading over their shoulder, but that's not what we're talking about. There is zero legal precedence for this idea of "anonymous in a crowd" that I do see every now and then when talking about privacy. I am legally allowed to take as many pictures of public places and people in public places as I want, so while a person might not be able to directly recall your face, I could easily and legally take your photograph in a public space and thus track your movements this way. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectation_of_privacy#Overview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectation_of_privacy#Overview
- foobarbazqux 13y agoOh, yeah, I was talking about subjective expectations of privacy. I didn't realize you were arguing a legal perspective. When I say expectations, I don't mean societal rights, I just mean what I expect to happen. I think they derive largely from how we experience the world physically, and I think that they translate poorly to online privacy. In particular, we usually consider conversations between two people to be private, but two computers talking to each other is quite often public.
- diminoten 13y agoAbsolutely. It's one of the hardest parts of all of this - translating physical space expectations to the Internet. Congress should draft up some kind of "rules of engagement" for the Internet, explicitly setting expectations. We know we're going to get searched at the airport, but we have no clue what the US government is going to do to us when we're online. That would be friggin' helpful to know.